Bloody Tears Never Fall
by MidnightAngels1234
Summary: After fan suggestion and plea, this will be a chapter book: Zim never cried, but after being found in his lab by Gaz after three weeks, she realized that the nobodies were the somebodies. With regret and pain Gaz is given a second chance to change the course of history, a life...and to make sure that bloody tears never fall. ZAGR thing, was one shot, now chapter R&R please.
1. 10 years too late

**_A/N: This is another one shot by me :3. This is a type of Zagr it's like...well you'll read and find out, it's a strange ZAGR moment. Well anyways, please read and review it would mean a lot to me C':. Some people from my previous one shots asked me to make more one shots so here you go I am fufilling those peoples wishes. _**

**_Again please, please, PLEASE read and review! _**

**_~Deathwish1234_**

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Zim never cried.

Never before when he was called defective by his own race, pushed around by the humans, blown up by Dib and even when Gir stopped working did he ever cry. He was always the type to express his emotions through shouting and loud outbursts in class…but now…now he was different.

It'd been three weeks since Dib and Gaz had last seen Zim even show his face around town let alone school. No one around the school ever seemed to take notice…except of course Dib whom had pointed it out every day that he was gone, saying he was probably out developing some evil plan to enslave the whole race.

The teachers were now questioning students on his whereabouts, telling them someone needed to find him because he was out of sick days and had to be punished for skipping class in the first place.

The only problem was no one knew where he was. The last time the students had seen him was after New Year's, but something was different about him that day. He didn't shout, glare and snap at anyone, not even Dib, nor did he pay attention in class and ask as many questions as he usually did and he fell asleep during every test, not even having filled in his name first. All he did was lay his head onto his desk and sleep even before class started.

Dib noticed the change in behavior and cornered Zim about it at lunch, but even then he got no answer. He at one point told a teacher that Zim looked like hell that day. Of course no one believed him about Zim being an alien, but Dib had seen that day that Zim's wig was not on right, his antenna were hanging out the side and his contacts were put in the wrong eyes, making them look the wrong way every time his eyes moved. Everything was wrong. Zim was so pristine in how he had to look how he HAD to trick the human race every day but that day…it almost looked like he'd been TRYING to get caught but still hadn't even been noticed.

Gaz noticed his appearance in town the very next day. He was alone, sitting in front of Bloaty's. She'd thought about going over and kicking him to question where he'd been, but it's not like she initially cared in the end. So she just passed by him, not even giving him a second glance. When she'd come out ten minutes later, he was still there, but his face was hidden in his hands and he almost looked like he was shaking. That would be ridiculous though, Zim never cried not in the seven years he'd been here on Earth.

Once again she took no notice. She almost regretted it now though because now…NOW Dib would NOT shut up about it! She wanted to kill him every time he came up with another conspiracy theory for the alien and today was no different.

"He's planning something Gaz, I just know it," Dib stated heatedly, slamming his lunch tray down on the table next to her, distracting her from a game she was defeating.

"Shut up Dib, your voice is annoying!" She growled back, button mashing just to save herself from an onslaught of vampire piggy's the ultimate boss had unleashed upon her avatar. He blabbed for a second longer, but she drowned his monotone voice out to defeat the undefeatable.

He had only 5 HP left and if she could just get in one more combo move he'd be down for the count and she would be making gamers history. She was running in close, raising her sword and about to strike the beast down when suddenly, "Gaz are you even LISTENING to me!?" Dib shouted in her ear, causing her thumb to hesitate and the beast to blow her up with fire.

Her jaw dropped as she stared at the big "Game Over" scrawled across the screen and she felt a bubbling fire swooping around through her veins. Her fists clenched so hard she pierced her skin with her dull nails and her teeth were bared in a deadly snarl, showing just how furious she was. "Look you stupid big headed idiot! I don't CARE about what Zim's planning! NONE of his plans EVER work and that's not thanks to you, it's thanks to his own IDIOCY. So SHUT UP when I am TRYING to focus on my games or I will plunge you into a hellish nightmare world from which there is no return and where only Zim's voice can be heard echoing through that stupid, ginormous, thick, empty head of yours! ARE WE CLEAR!" Her voice roared, making the whole lunch room go silent and move to the edges of the room, not even the lunch ladies were brave enough to continue serving food as they armed themselves with lunch trays in case her anger was directed that way.

"Uhh," Dib said, looking extremely small now as he scooted away from his sister, begging silently in his head for her to only break a few bones, "S-Sorry Gaz, it…It won't h-happen again!" She gave him an angry look before grabbing his lunch tray and smashing what was left of it over his head, making all the gooey mash potatoes and peas spill over his glasses, the only thing protecting his eyes from the deadly potatoes.

"It better not!" She snapped, slamming his face into the lunch table before getting up and looking at the rest of the cowering students, "What're you looking at?" Gaz sneered, wrinkling her nose as their fearful stench blew into her face.

They all looked away and pretended to go about their own business as she just growled and exited the room, heading for her locker. She didn't have a fifth period so she had about an hour to herself before she had to go back to home room and be dismissed.

As she stepped in front of her locker, she couldn't help but look over to where Zim's locker used to be, three lockers down from her own. She had been curious as to why he hadn't been at school but she hadn't put much thought into it. So with the curiosity nagging her she side stepped over to his locker and looked at the turn lock. If she knew one thing about Zim it was that he liked easy access to his locker and would always have the combination already done, just waiting for that last turn to unlock it and pop it open. 'I wonder if he remembered to do it that last time he was here,' Gaz boredly thought to herself, reaching a hand up and turning the knob.

Sure enough it popped open and slowly swung out toward her. Her eyes glanced around the hall for a moment before she leaned in to see if she could find anything useful. There were a few crumpled up world domination plans in there, along with some inventions that she had no idea how to use, but what caught her curiosity was a CD pushed between two pages of a text book.

She looked at it for a moment before the lunch bell rang, indicating that lunch was over and it was time for class again. Gaz quickly snatched the disk and slammed his locker shut, zipping over to her locker and opening it to look like she'd been there for a while.

Students flooded the halls not two seconds later, heading to their lockers and fifth periods, all chattering about the latest nonsense. One conversation she happened to be able to hear very well, since it was at the locker right next to hers, "So where do you think he went?" A jock asked his bimbo girlfriend.

"I don't know, Zim is weird he's always been weird." She answered, pushing the front of her hair back with her fingers to make it look 'sexy'.

"Yeah," The jock snorted, "He probably just couldn't handle me anymore. He didn't even try to defend himself the last time I shoved him in a trash can. I wouldn't be surprised if he was at home crying like a baby about how pathetic his life is right now."

"Yeah I bet, I heard from a friend who heard from another friend who heard from this guy who heard from his girlfriend who heard from her best friend whom over heard some teachers that Zim committed suicide. What a wuss." They both laughed afterward, nodding to each other in agreement.

Gaz growled angrily to herself, slamming her locker shut and glaring at the two assholes, "Suicide is NOT a laughing matter," She spat, making the bimbo roll her eyes and hold onto her Jock's arm.

"What do you care, you his girlfriend or something?"

"As if," Gaz nearly chocked, "But if you don't want to go to a burning hellacious nightmare world from which there will NEVER be a return I suggest you stop poking your nose into Zim's business."

"What a freak," The bimbo muttered as Gaz grabbed her books and headed for the library. Since she had no fifth period she took this time to play more games and draw half the school blowing up in a fiery ball of doom.

After the hour was up and the fifth period bell rang, she collected her items and shoved her hands in her pockets, feeling the disk she stole from Zim's locker under her fingers. She was to report to homeroom for fifteen minutes and would then be released to go home, yet she had other plans for home period.

Her dad was of course a genius and she had the power to get anything he made for free at any store, just by being his daughter. So she'd gotten every new game slave and every new game she could get only one time her order was messed up and she got a small CD player instead of a second game slave 3. At first she wanted to get rid of the thing and demand a refund, but when her game slave came the next day she had no reason to rein doom down on them.

She was thankful for it now though and quickly pulled it out of her backpack once she settled into her home room. Grabbing and forcing in the disk, she put in her head phones and cranked the volume, grunting at the teacher when he called her name for attendance. A small hologram screen popped up and let her and only her see and hear what was playing in the disk, which meant it was a video along with a sound recorder. At first it was just a vid of Zim-out of his disguise-scanning over some technology on a table, picking it up and testing it out on certain things before that clip ended and moved into a clip where Zim was keeping a video diary.

Gaz glanced at the date on the video, it was the day she saw him before sighting him in front of Bloaty's. He looked like hell in the video but she took no notice to his appearance as much as she did his words, "Zim does not understand what he did wrong," His voice was low and raspy, but also irritated and hurt, "I-I've worked my whole life for this!" He glanced back around at the base, showing the camera his lab as well. It was all ok for the moment, nothing looked out of place, "But now what does it matter, everything is gone! It's over!" The screen went black seconds later only to reappear two hours later.

Gaz almost gasped at the sight of him and his base now. In just two hours the base had been torn to pieces and ransacked and Zim was sitting in the middle of it all, emotionless, just staring at the ground. He sat like that for a moment before his face turned toward the screen, "I know you're watching Dib's sister, you're the only human being who would be smart enough to look in Zim's locker." Her stomach churned slightly at his chilling tone and she took note that he was covered in blood, "I have lost my job Gaz-human, and no longer am I important to my empire. There is no reason for Zim to stay no reason for him to live any longer. My life no longer has a purpose." His face twitched for a second before he curled his legs into his chest and slammed his head down onto them, "I am defective. And it is your monster of a brother's fault!" The sudden change in behavior startled her slightly, but she didn't think too hard on it, "If he had not INVADED MY PERSONAL SPACE I would still have meaning! I would not have to in the position I am now, talking to the likes of YOU about my sudden disappearance." There was a long pause after that and he started trembling before he suddenly looked straight into the camera and whispered, "Zim doesn't know what he did wrong." It cut off at that and the screen turned snowballed.

Gaz stared at it for a second before the let out bell rang. She quietly got up and grabbed her bag, shoving the CD player away into her pockets and exiting the school. Dib was waiting outside for her, like he always did, but she took extra care to make sure he didn't spot her as she slipped in with the students and pulled her hood up, passing Dib easily and heading down the street alone toward Zim's house. She had some questions for him and she wanted them answered.

As she continued on it started raining extremely hard, hard enough to the point where some lightning flashed across the sky with thunder soon following it. The wind had picked up, slamming the rain drops hard into her face until her walking turned into speed walking, then jogging and then full on sprinting until she was in front of the odd looking house. She could no longer see wires jutting out into the other houses next to it, nor were the gnomes in the lawn anymore. It was just a house.

She walked up to the front door and banged on it, "Open up Zim!" She snapped, expecting an automatic answer. However she got none. Instead all she heard was the rain pounding into the side walk and slamming against his windows as the wind knocked it around.

Her fist pounded harder on the door until she heard the lock snap and the door swing open on its own. She paused, looking around in the dark home before taking a step in and taking another look around. The couch was tipped over and all the stuffing in it was gone. The TV had a broken screen that was still sparking on the inside and the walls and pictures had giant scratch marks across them.

There were messages written in Irken scrawled across the wall, making her shudder slightly, it almost looked like a horror movie set. "Uh Zim?" She called hearing her voice echo throughout the home.

No answer came to her but she did hear something clang against the ground in the darkness in front of her. It sounded like it was coming closer and soon a small device rolled into her view, halting right in front of her. She had no idea what it was until it dawned on her that it was a metallic eye; Gir's eye.

He'd stopped working ages ago after another battle between Zim and Dib but Zim could never fix him correctly to get him to work again. This made Gaz curious as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her game slave, turning it on and shining the light around the dark house.

Her eyes squinted into slits and she bit her cheek when she saw Gir's body lying dismantled and destroyed in front of the kitchen. The metal had claw marks in it, and every appendage had been dismantled from his body, tossed about into different areas. "Gir?" She muttered to herself, stepping up to his remains and grabbing a piece of him. She did not know this piece was attached to another piece but a tiny wire, which snapped as she lifted it into the air, leaving the rest of his body to make the loudest clang in the silence of the dark house.

She paused when she heard something coming from Zim's base entrance, "Cut it out Zim, your house is stupid," Gaz snapped, dropping Gir's arm and crossing her arms in a huff. She didn't like all the noises when she couldn't see what was making them.

However there was still no response to her demands so she walked over to Zim's base entrance and stepped in. The elevator whirred but didn't move, leading her to believe it was broken. Gaz was about to step out when suddenly the elevator dropped at an alarming speed rate.

A surprised yelp flew from her throat as she grabbed onto anything she could to keep her down. The house grunted and creaked around her as she fell until the elevator turned slightly in its path and started scraping against the walls, sparking and screaming as it started sliding down at an angle.

The metal scraping metal noise was agonizing to Gaz and she let go of what she was holding to hold her hands over her ears instead. The elevator started slowing down as it turned more and more and got jammed harder up against the wall until she was literally on the side wall of the contraption, facing down.

Her breathing was ragged and her eyes were wide from the shock as she slammed her foot into the emergency door open button. Her hands barely had time to grasp the railing on the inner part of the elevator as the doors opened, dropping into the darkness below. It was pitch black down there other than the dim green light the elevator was giving off. "ZIM!" she screamed, trying to sound strong as her voice echoed throughout the dark cavern.

Angry and flustered she pulled herself up onto the railing and sat against it, leaning her back onto the bottom side of the elevator to pull her game slave out. She shone light down the tunnel to see if she could see a bottom but she couldn't, her game slave light wouldn't reach to the bottom leaving her oblivious to how far down the bottom really was. Sadly her game slave was also running out of battery.

The elevator lights flickered on and off until they went out completely, leaving the only light to come from her game slave, "Great," She snapped to herself, "How am I going to get out of this mess?" She looked around with the game light and was about to give up when suddenly a ladder came into view, "Thank god," She muttered, placing the game slave in between her teeth while hanging from the railing and scooting over toward where the ladder was. To get to it, she'd have to jump about three feet and as little as that was in real life, it felt like a canyon away to her right now. 'I have to jump, it's either that or I'm stuck here for god knows how long.'

Taking in a deep breath, she swung back and forth using her legs as leverage and made the faithful jump to the ladder. Her hand grazed one of the bars but just missed grabbing it. She screamed when she started falling but quickly stopped when her leg was jerked up, having been caught in a spoke.

Her back slammed against the other spokes on the ladder as her game slave fell, "NO!" She snarled angrily, watching it as it twirled around and fell. She counted the seconds it was falling, but she stopped when she got to 7 seconds…that was a long way down, it still hadn't hit, or at least not that she'd heard yet. Another 5 seconds passed when she finally heard it shatter on the ground, that's 12 seconds down…that's a long…long way down.

Her leg was still stuck, but at least she wasn't falling anymore. Her back and head ached from the impact but that was nothing compared to the pain her leg was feeling from having to support all her body weight.

Reaching behind her, she felt around for another sturdy spoke and held it as tightly as possible, pushing up on it until her leg became dislodged and her body fell forward. Quickly holding onto the spoke harder, her legs slammed into the ones below her, making her groan in pain. But at least she was safe for now.

She thought about going up, but the destroyed elevator was blocking her path so the only way she could go was down into the darkness…

1, 2, 3, 4, 5….598, 599, 600…920, 921, she counted the steps she'd been taking. Her legs and arms were starting to feel like fire and she was soon too tired to continue and just leaned against the bars wondering what to do next. She could slide down but that'd burn her hands and she could possibly lose her grip and fall. She could also try taking two bars at a time, but she had no idea if the next bar would really be there since she was in complete darkness. The best idea was to fight off the burn and keep going as she was, "never thought I'd complain about going DOWNHILL," She grumbled to herself taking more steps down. She must've been gone for hours now, Dib had to be worrying about her, he'd come find her soon…right?

Still, she continued down until about half an hour later her foot touched something solid. She tried taking another step down but she couldn't she…she'd hit the floor! Finally! A gasp of relief left her petite body as she let go of the bars and collapsed onto the ground, never being happier that she was lying down on a cold metal ground.

She still couldn't see but she needed to find a way out, or at least find Zim even his company would be better than being alone in this darkness. Luckily, her hand found a wall and she started walking in no particular direction looking for anything that resembled a light switch but alas, she found none. Her foot crunched onto something and she instantly knew it was her broken game slave. This angered her of course but she just tried to forget about it and search for a door, there had to be one or where else would the elevator lead?

Her tiny hands felt around each grove in the wall, trying to find the door until her fingers skimmed across a line going down in the wall. It HAD to be the door. She tried prying it apart and with a little bit of angry girl force, she got it to open up a smidge. Again she pried at it, making the gap wider and wider each time until she could step in.

It felt safer wherever she was now; there was a dull pink glow from around each corner, letting her at least see the outline of objects in the room. Going off her gut instinct, she headed for the left, following the curved hall way into the next room. This had to be his main lab, there were all sorts of tools and alienated equipment down here, plus there was a massive computer screen at the head of the room, it was shattered, but it was still there.

This room was also destroyed, more so then the upstairs. There were loose live wires sparking and tables were knocked over. Things broken against the wall, chairs askew, plans shredded, tubes dangling from the roof, knocked over screens, objects lodged into other objects, both of them being broken, claw marks and blood stains all over the walls, to say it was worry some was a major understatement. "Zim?" her voice barely got out as she looked at the horror around her, where had the blood come from? And where was Zim?

She saw a lump on the floor by the broken monitor and something blinking next to it, so naturally she headed that way first, "Zim?" She tried again, walking over to see it was Zim's PAK blinking and flashing, it was off of its hosts back but the long cables and wires were still leading off the PAK to the lump. Her hand reached out to it and grabbed fabric; it was definitely Zim, "Zim? Are you ok, what happened?"

No noise came out of him, so she gripped his shirt and dragged him over toward the light. He was a mess, covered in dried blood, out of his disguise, no gloves, bloody hands, broken claws and scratches all over himself. Her eyes widened for a moment before she shook it off and used to fingers to pry his eye lid open to see if he was alive in there.

His pupils stared up at nothing; there was no light in them, no life in them, no…no nothing in them. "Zim," She said, tapping his face a little bit to see if she'd get a response. She didn't, "ZIM!" She snapped louder, yanking his antenna to see if she could get a reaction out of him that way. Still nothing. She started to wonder if he was dead and she had no idea how to check the aliens pulse or if he even had a pulse area to check!

She grabbed his wrists, sliding down to his hands before hearing something drop from his palm onto the ground. It was another disk. She didn't focus on it for a minute as she felt the texture of his hand, it was…soft? She couldn't describe it but it was softer than a baby's skin, no sweat on it, it was just…perfect. His three sharp little claws were even more interesting. He had knuckles but normal humans had three knuckles that bent into your fingertips, he didn't, he had two. His normal connecting knuckle but then just one other until it reached his finger tip there was no third.

His wrists were rather small; she could fit all her fingers around it and still touch her thumb, where normally you couldn't, at least not with every finger and so easily. This was honestly the first time she'd seen him up close and he was…well interesting. She'd always envied his eyes, having seen him without his disguise on before but she never got to see them up close. They were beautiful and really fit his face if you asked her, but his antenna intrigued her the most. Every time she'd seen them they'd changed angle and were either up, or bouncing around or pinned back angrily. She figured out through Dib that they expressed emotion but she never really registered it since well, Dib was Dib and he was annoying as hell so most the times she just drowned his rants out and played her game slave.

Thinking on her beloved game system, "You owe me a game slave Zim." She did thankfully still have her CD player and quickly popped the disk in to see what had gone on. Again it was a video diary but it was a slightly unnerving video. It was of him destroying his lab, cursing in his native tongue and yelling at anything he thought deserved to be yelled at.

Once or twice he faced the camera, just glaring for a second before destroying something else and shouting angrily. Though eventually he started blabbing in English, saying random things that you could not understand if you really tried. She did get out a few choice words like "Dib," and "Fault". But nothing was really understandable until he calmed down a little bit.

"This is all the Dib's fault!" Zim snarled, shaking the camera and glaring furiously in it, "Dib human ruined Zim's life! Now he has NOTHING. He prevents Zim's plans, pushes him around at school, tries to reveal Zim's identity and for what! To stop me from enslaving a race that doesn't even give him a second glance!? How could one possibly love his race so much that he'd die trying to defend the people who wouldn't even notice his disappearance, or if they did, they'd cheer it! HOW!? Zim does not understand! He angers me so much! I can't even approach the Gaz-human about anything without the Dib attacking Zim! Why is it so bad that I like to talk to her? Why is it so bad that Zim finds one horrible human on this planet that is to be respected, almost feared! Why can I not just talk to her as other students talk to her? DIB that's why! He's determined every time I speak with her that I've probed her brain with something, why would I do that to a being on this planet that I find tolerable? It is sad though, because Zim cannot be in the right talking to Gaz, she is the sister of the enemy! How can I possibly even think-." He cut off for a long moment, staring at the screen before leaning back onto his haunches and collapsing onto his bum, "I don't know what I did wrong. Just because I like the human does not mean I am expressing emotion, why must my Tallest treat me like I have suddenly wanted her to be my mate? I haven't! So Zim does not know what he did wrong! I have been loyal, I have strived and worked hard for the day where my race will recognize me and praise me! Just because I am good at destroying and destroyed half my own planet does not mean I am a defect! A defect can live without their PAK, I cannot! And to think, I even stayed around to put out the fires that I had caused, even if they did only get worse as I made my attempts to stop them, I still tried! I TRIED to right my wrong and I got nothing but disrespect for it! Oh if only Zim had seen it back then, when I was so sure my Tallest cared for every Irken, no matter how insignificant but I was WRONG! They are…are monsters! I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'VE DONE TO DESERVE THIS FATE!" Gaz stared at the screen forever, wondering what had happened between he and his Tallest, but that's not what startled her the most.

What startled her were the events following, "I am starting my test now to show my EX rulers that I am NO defect!" He snarled at the computer, throwing his arms back over his head and digging his claws under the top of his PAK.

"Don't," Gaz muttered, even though she knew he did. He wrenched his PAK and screamed in agony as he started pulling it out of his body. Blood spilt out as the cables tried their hardest to stay in him, attached to his spine. However it had been no use for he had ripped the PAK completely off and tossed it down. Blood covered his palms as he dropped onto his knees and screamed in the worst kind of agony Gaz had ever heard. The PAK still had some wires attached to him but they were coated in his blood, making them barely visible in the pool that had already gathered behind him.

"Eight minutes left my Tallest," He spat the words, "Eight minutes until I prove to you, that I am not a defect. I am a perfectly functioning Irken who only sought to please you and got nothing out of it. I was wrong thinking you were wonderful, I was wrong to think that just because you are tall that you can lead. You can't do ANYTHING but hurt people and run a false empire that is sure to fall within the next decade! I hope you rot in hell for this!" He was panting now, yanking on his antenna with his bloody palms while crying out in pain again, "I guess you were right about one thing though, Zim does feel. He feels the pain of his life leaving him, he feels the pain of being rejected by the ones he loved, and he feels the pain of having to realize that every day for the past 182 years meant nothing."

He fell forward a bit at that and groaned, "Five minutes left." A small smile worked on his face as he thought of what was to come, "Without my PAK my bases backup generator will take effect but it won't last forever, things will turn fragile and break, our race will be exposed to the humans. They'll know you're there my Tallest, they'll use my body and experiment with it to find our weaknesses because eventually, they'll be smart enough to reach you and THEY will conquer YOU."

He let out a pained gasp and curled forward, resting his forehead on the ground, "Two minutes my Tallest." He flopped onto his side at this and sighed, resting the side of his face against the cool metal ground and focusing in on his shallow breathing. "One day you'll realize that maybe emotion isn't so bad to have, I have realized this around the Gaz human, and I have found anger around the Dib human, sadness at my Gir which you disabled to TOY with me! I have felt it all and I am glad for it, I regret nothing." Zim started hacking at this, spitting up blood which trickled down his chin and neck, staining his already red shirt and causing it to become soaked and stuck to his body. "One…one minute."

He was really weak now, panting and sweating, his antennas were slack in front of his face and blood was freely dripping out of his mouth. He looked helpless. "Twenty seconds." He waited a moment before answering again, "Ten…."

With the last bit of strength he had he grabbed the nearest sharp object he could find and glared into the camera, "One second." This was the most terrifying part. Finally after the long ten minute wait, he'd thrown the object into the screen as his body shuddered and fell limp on the ground.

Instantly she jammed her hand into her pocket, trying to stay calm and called Dib, "Hello?"

"I'm at Zim's, come get me…now." She whispered, hanging up seconds later. Looking over at his body she wanted to cry herself. But she didn't. She merely walked over to him and sat with him, holding his hand against her cheek and clenching her eyes shut, "I'm so sorry, I wish I could've at least comforted you through death Zim."

The CD was still in the player but it was just a snowballed screen now, how it had gotten into his hand was beyond Gaz but watching that video was terrifying.

For it had taken her nearly ten years to see that Zim liked her…and only ten minutes for him to kill himself because of that very reason. At the last second, she'd seen something she'd never thought she'd see nor had she ever wanted to see in her life.

Zim was crying.

And Invader Zi…Zim…Never cried.

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_**A/N: So yeah more of a one sided ZAGR in the end. I don't know, I felt it was a little bit rushed. But still good in my opinion, though it is my book. So what do you guys think? Please R&amp;R and fav if you want. It's a one shot so no need to follow but maybe one day I'll turn all my one shots into actual chapter books. For now that is a long off project. **_

_**Thanks for the read!**_

_**~Deathwish1234**_


	2. A second chance

_**A/N: Hi everyone, this is me trying to gain my writing spark back. I've been out a lot lately, dealing with a lot of pain and stress and today after seeing spider man 2 twice in a week, got the idea for this chapter. My story is I've been pushed around and put down all my life by people I thought cared about me. People I was close to, killed themselves because they couldn't be accepted...because they weren't perfect. I attempted suicide because I couldn't get out of my head that I wasn't failure, a mistake, worthless and had no purpose. I was and still am a nobody. So I started getting better, people started helping me, leaving me alone. But that didn't feel any better. So I put myself out there, showed the world that I am NOT perfect but I can still kick ass, smile, laugh and shape my life to make it the way I want it. And not one damn person is going to tell me different. Now, I'm the funny person, I'm the person people want to be around...but I am also the person, who notices the nobodies, the people who need to be noticed, the people who need to know someone out there is a world of assholes cares. No life is insignificant to me and no idea too stupid to be heard at least once. **_

_**So this chapter is dedicated to the nobodies, like me.**_

_**And it's like 1 am so mistakes were made writing this chapter, enjoy them, embrace them and remind yourself, I ain't perfect and neither are you. But to someone, you are perfect, your mistakes make you perfect, being you; makes you perfect. So don't forget it. **_

_**I don't own anything except the plot and my name ;3. Please R&amp;R cause you know I love hearing fan feed back! **_

_**~Deathwish1234**_

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Another ten minutes had passed, leaving Gaz to be sitting alone in a dark lab, holding the hand of the one person who actually noticed her in a good way. To Zim, she was somebody; sure she was scary to him, as he had said, but he recognized the fact, that there was an emotion that was invoked in him when talking to her.

It was silent in the room as Gaz quietly stroked Zim's limp antenna. 'I shouldn't have called Dib,' She thought to herself angrily. After watching the last video clip, she'd tried to hold everything that hurt in, but a few minutes later she couldn't take it anymore.

She started crying, albeit not hard but she was still crying. She remembered every moment she was alone because her good for nothing father was gone and her brother was out chasing monsters. She had always been alone…and it hurt.

Not many people realize just how much being alone hurts. It's being locked up within yourself, questioning everything: Your sanity, your life, your relationships with other people, your hope…everything. That is why depression hits people hard.

And that was how Gaz was feeling. She and Zim weren't friends, they were far from it but she did remember his many various attempts to talk to her, to say hi to her when he and her brother were fighting. Every single god damn time, he put effort forth into noticing her, into showing HER that she wasn't alone. "And what do I have to say for myself?" She choked, "I never said hi back, I barely noticed you…I even ridiculed you in front of others to please myself…" She paused to suck in a short lived breath, "If I had known…"

She was interrupted when a bright light flashed through the dark room, blinding her swollen eyes that had just recently adjusted to the darkness around her. It was her cellphone and Dib was calling.

Shakily, she reached down and grabbed the cell phone, trying to take a couple deep breaths to sound normal over the phone, "Hello?" She mumbled, hating herself even more at the weak underlying tone of her voice.

"Gaz, are you ok? I'm here, where are you? Has Zim hurt you? Should I call the feds!?" Dib automatically questioned, making Gaz both angry and even more depressed than before.

"Why do you always think it's Zim's fault?! You know maybe he is just trying to live and be noticed like the rest of this stupid mother fucking world!" She shouted, instantly regretting her words when she heard Dib quietly gasp.

"I'm just trying to help…" There was a long moment of silence as Gaz tried to think of what to say. Apologizing would make her look bad, but saying nothing was worse. Dib was her brother and blood is thicker than water, "I'll just wait for you in the car, but hurry up, the storm hasn't let up and I want to get home to see Dad some more."

"D-Dad's home?" She breathed, feeling her heart skip a beat.

"Yeah, he came home because you have a D in science and he wants to examine your brain or something. Anyways he's been waiting on you all night and as we all know, he isn't a patient man Gaz. You need to get out here fast or deal with being disowned." Dib sighed back.

Gaz felt her heart squeeze in fear. She may be a dark scary underworld queen, but the one thing she feared most was her father being mad at her. She was supposed to be the sane child, the child to be proud of, the one to love like no other. She was the little girl; the baby and nothing scared her more than losing the last 'parent' she had: "I'll be out in just a second."

"Ok," Dib answered, hanging up right after.

Gaz took in a shaky breath and looked down at Zim's body, "We're just the nobody's huh Zim? You and I. The two people trying harder than anyone to be noticed by the most oblivious and un-empathetic people in the universe. Dib can come in as a close second, but at least he gets noticed as insane by people. They at least know his struggles with insanity. But…no one knows ours."

Using her free hand she gently pushed Zim's eye lids down over the lifeless orbs and slowly let go of his hand, "I'm coming back for you. I promise." Zim's hand lifelessly dropped from hers onto the ground as she stood up, grabbing her stuff and taking a deep breath. She felt weird about leaving a body here and just walking out like nothing was wrong, but it's what she had to do, for Zim's sake. She didn't want him to be torn apart by scientists or Dib, he deserved proper respect, a proper burial and that's what she'd give him.

Looking around she only had one other problem to face: Getting out. "You weren't stupid Zim, there has to be an emergency exit here somewhere." She thought out loud, using her phone light to glance around.

She growled after a few moments before noticing a sign behind a broken computer that was written in Irken. Walking over to it, she noticed there was a latch behind it and she could hear the rain pounding down onto whatever was behind the latch.

With a sigh of relief, she zipped up her jacket and shoved the monitor away, yanking hard on the latch until it opened to a small tunnel sloping up and a device that glowed when she touched it. 'Clever,' Gaz thought, grabbing onto the handle and feeling it quickly pull her up toward the surface.

She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling rain spray starting to drip into them until she came out, onto the surface of Zim's base. She could see Dib's car just outside the gate and quickly ran over to it, wanting to get out of the heavily pouring rain.

"What took so long Gaz?" Dib asked calmly, turning on a seat warmer for her as she buckled up.

"I couldn't find my way out," She grunted back, looking out the window and trying hard to ignore her persistent brother.

"You sounded like you were crying over the phone, is everything alright? Did you find Zim? Is he ok?" This actually surprised Gaz, whom looked over at him in shock, "Gaz?"

"Why do you care if he's ok?" She whispered quietly.

He blushed slightly and glanced away while turning a corner toward his house, "I don't like him, in fact; I hate him. But I'm not stupid. Ever since Zim showed up, Torque and the other bullies targeted him because he was green. They only ever tormented me when I got in their way after he came along. So…I know what it feels like to be pushed around and put down every day of your life; it's not a good feeling and I know how much I wanted someone…ANYONE to ask me if I was ok. So I want to know if he is ok, because I understand how much it hurts to be targeted." Gaz swallowed a heavy lump in her throat and bit the inside of her cheek as hard as she could so she wouldn't start crying again.

"It's over now Dib," She muttered, biting her knuckles and looking out the window at the passing lamp posts, "You won."

"What did I win?"

"Earth is safe…Zim…won't be conquering it anymore. He's gone."

"What do you mean he's gone?" Dib asked, clearly becoming more agitated as he gripped the wheel and looked over at her for a second.

"The rumors are true; he didn't want to live anymore…" Gaz trailed off at that, pulling her legs up into her chest to hug while she tried to blink back the pain.

Dead silence followed her words and when she looked over to see why he wasn't talking, she saw instead that he was crying. "D-Dib, w…why are you crying? You won didn't you! Aren't you happy! This is what you've wanted since day one! You wanted him dead!"

"Not by his own hand!" Dib snapped back, pulling the car over at a stop light and angrily hitting the wheel with his fist, "This is not how it was supposed to end. We…we were enemies; I was his Yin as much as he was my Yang. And I…I couldn't even bring myself to go check on him! He checked on me when I got sick for a week last year, even if it was just to laugh at my pathetic immune system, he checked, he made SURE that I wasn't gone. And I…I just spread rumors and lies about him. I didn't win one god damn thing in this Gaz, not one thing."

Gaz went silent as the light turned green, leaving Dib to pull away again for a couple more minutes until they got to their house, "Here," Dib said, giving Gaz the key to the house.

"Aren't you coming in?" Gaz asked quietly.

"No."

"Then where are you going?"

"Out."

"Dib-."

"Go home Gaz," He said in a hushed tone, making Gaz's skin crawl a little bit, "Now."

"Don't do anything stupid Dib," Gaz said quickly before zipping out of the car and into the house after unlocking the triple bolted door.

She slammed the heavy dark red door behind her and quickly tossed off her sopping wet jacket and boots. She could hear her dad muttering to himself in the kitchen and quickly took a deep breath. "Dad, I'm home."

"Come her daughter," Professor Membrane said calmly. Gaz gulped and slowly walked into the kitchen, sitting in the seat her dad was motioning for her to sit in. He was tapping his fingers on the stop of the table over an open letter while looking at her through his intimidating black goggles. "Where is your brother?"

"He wanted to be alone," Gaz answered obediently, "To work some stuff out."

"My poor insane son…" He muttered, his brow creasing when he cast a glance down at her report card, "Do you want to tell me what this says Gazelene?"

"I know I have a D in science but dad you don't understand I-."

"There is no excuse for this grade Gaz; you are not only making yourself look bad but me as well. If my coworkers find out I am raising a bumbling fool, I will be called a failure as not only a scientist but also a father." Gaz's jaw dropped when he said this and her fists clenched.

"You're not worried about my grade are you dad, you're worried about your reputation. You could care less if I had F's in every class, as long as it wasn't your last name attached to my first name."

"That is not true Gazelene." He said in an eerily calm voice, though he stopped tapping his fingers over the table, "Yes I am worried about my reputation but I am also worried about you."

"That's new," Gaz scoffed, crossing her arms and glaring at the table.

The professor went silent for a second before standing up and walking over to the fridge, opening it to show her all the food inside, "Tell me Gazelene Membrane; who buys this food?"

She silently glared for a second before looking away and muttering, "You do."

"Correct, and tell me daughter, who pays for this house? Who pays for the clothes you're wearing, for the games you play, for the makeup you wear, for the bed you sleep on; who pays for that?"

"You do."

"That's right. I do. Maybe you have a chance after all," He announced, shutting the fridge and walking back over to the table, "And what do I ask in return for all of this Gaz?"

"Nothing…"

"Correct, I gave both you and Dib something some kids could only dream of. You have no bed time, no rules, and no chores. You get what you want when you want it and you can't manage to keep one grade up, after all I've done for you, you can't help yourself?" She bit her lip at this and dug her nails into her arm.

"I'm sorry dad…"

"I'd hope so. I want you to take responsibility for your carelessness and fix your mistakes Gaz. I can't live your life for you and you only get one chance to make it the way you want it. So take your chance Gaz and fix this while you still have a few weeks of school left before school gets out."

"My friend killed himself dad," Gaz said quietly, looking up at him with swollen red eyes, "Because he noticed me but I never took the time to notice him, when he needed me the most."

Professor membrane was once against silent at this as he turned his gaze down toward the table, "I'm sorry Gaz."

"It was that boy Zim, Dib's foreign friend, remember?"

"Too bad…he was such a spry boy too. He told me a lot about his culture and how his race dealt with insane boys like Dib…" Gaz almost laughed while looking at her lap. This wasn't making her feel any better. "When did he do this?"

"A couple weeks ago, maybe three…four?" Gaz answered, sniffling a little bit while biting her lip again. Her head jerked up a little bit when she felt her father grab her wrist gently.

"I have to show you something Gazelene, come with me and quickly." He said, sliding his hand down into her hand and getting up, leading her down a dark blue stair case toward the bulky silver door that was his home lab.

He slipped a glove off and placed his hand on the key pad of the door, making it beep loudly and unlock for instant access into the belly of the room. "What are you showing me dad?" Gaz asked while rubbing her irritated eyes with her free hand.

"Hush child, I must focus for this to work," He answered, releasing her hand while walking over to a machine and typing some things into it, "All trials I have performed have come back a success, but I've never pushed it so hard…A whole month. Could it work?" He rambled to himself, typing in more buttons and words before grabbing a lever and slowly pulling it down.

The machine next to him lit up with a gentle blue glow, lighting up the amber color of Gazes eyes as she stared at the contraption in awe. It was amazing, like a mirror except looking the wrong way. She saw her back in the portal and her father's front as he type in things. "Dad what is this?"

"Another chance," Professor Membrane answered, turning back toward Gaz, "How much do you care for this person Gaz, be honest."

"If I had known what he was going through, my life would no longer have become important to me," Gaz answered, looking at her dad in slight worry, "Why?"

"This is my new invention…time travel. Cliché I know, but I cannot make it go back more than a few weeks. A month is pushing it to a whole new level but a life is at stake."

"Dad what're you saying?" Gaz asked, feeling her heart pound harder in her chest.

"You can save his life Gaz, it's dangerous but if you care about this person, than you can give him a second chance at life. Do you really think you can change his life Gazelene?"

"Yes," She breathed, "Yes, yes I do. I think I know how I can fix this."

"Then I will let you do this," He said quietly, "Promise me one thing though Gaz."

"I promise I'll get my grade up," She said quickly, wanting to run through the portal to get another chance. However when he stopped her from doing so, she looked up, confused.

"That's not what I want you to promise me."

"Then what dad, what do you want?!"

"Promise me, you'll save his life for good reason. If he isn't a good person you could ruin the world, if he's too good, he could just as easily die again. Make sure that this is authentic, and make sure you know in your heart that the decision you make is right. There is no maybe, if you have to question yourself, then you're doing this for the wrong reasons." She stared at him for a long moment before walking forward and hugging his legs tightly.

"I promise," She muttered into his pristine white lab coat.

"Ok," He breathed, "Be safe Gaz." She nodded and looked into the portal as her dad stepped out of the way.

Brushing back her hair and cracking her knuckles she stared into the past, the present, and the new future, the one she was going to shape, "Here we go Zim, this is for the nobodies. Let's get us a second chance."

Taking a deep breath and clenching her teeth, she stepped through the portal into the past.

The past where she was going to make damn sure.

That invader Zim would never cry.


	3. A Hit and A Miss!

_**A/N: Hi everyone, sorry this is a short chapter, I don't like this chapter very much but I'm still not all that sure where I'm going with this story so you'll have to bear with me for a little until I can come up with some crazy underlying plot X3. I still have major writers block, I haven't updated my most popular story since February and I feel horrible. **_

_**IMPORTANT: Those of you who Rp, talk, Text, skype and or email me and are not getting responses just know that I am not trying to ignore you. I just am working out other things. I will be absent from most my electronics for a while by my own choice, because I feel that I have disconnected with the two things that are the most important in my life and that is my horses and my reading. My horses as most of you know are everything to me, and I rode for the first time in maybe two to three months today. Clearly by my horses behavior, I need to focus in a little more on what's important at home. Did you guys know my book diet last year was three books a month? This year, I haven't been able to even finish two of my own selection. Clearly things are falling apart a little bit. But I digress, my personal problems should not be brought into my writing but I thought it was fair that those of you trying to contact me constantly know. **_

_**I would also like to say thank you for all the encouraging reviews, favs and follows. Keep those coming and this story will be flowing...hopefully :3. **_

_**This chapter is based off the song Iridescent by Linkin Park :3**_

_**I have a few review responses I want to add at the bottom C:**_

_**~Deathwish1234 'still struggling to get back in the saddle X3'**_

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Gaz gasped as her knees came in contact with her father's lab floor. Her hands were out in front of her as she stared at them, wondering if the time machine actually worked. "Dad?" she murmured quietly, slowly glancing up through her royal purple hair to see she was in fact alone, sitting in front of the machine that had been previously working not even mere seconds ago.

"Well…I guess it worked," She chuckled calmly, slowly pulling herself to her feet and brushing off her clothes. Her dad's main computer in his lab shone bright white letters throughout the dark room saying: "5:55 AM."

School started at six thirty, making her grumble to herself angrily. That means she'd actually have to catch a ride with Dib today. She wasn't angry because Dib was a bad driver, he was in fact one of the safest drivers she knew, but she was angry because it was well…Dib. And today would be no different with him than it was a month ago. The subject of interest in his conversation would still and always be: Zim.

"GAZ!" She heard his piercing voice screech out, making her clench her teeth and growl, "Are you awake yet!?"

Opening her mouth to shout back something snarky, she stopped and bit back her rude comment upon hearing her own voice, "SHUT UP DIB OR I WILL SEND YOU TO A NIGHTMARE WORLD WITH NO RETURN!"

A small smile carved itself onto her face, "Now that is music to my ears." She'd have to wait for a couple minutes now and then do the horrible deed of _running _to catch the bell before school started since now her ride plans were cut short. 'I'll have to work harder to avoid myself today than anything else!' She thought with a hint of annoyance.

For a moment she debated destroying her past self, but then she figured her present self would just disappear if past Gaz became no more.

Grumbling angrily to herself, she sat on her dad's lab steps and waited for a whole ten minutes until the door slammed shut and they were gone. "FINALLY!" She snapped at no one, being angry that she would in fact have to run to catch the bell now. If there was one thing she hated more in this world other than Dib's voice, it was running to catch something as stupid as an attendance mark for school. However she did promise her dad that she'd get that science grade up…

She checked the time before rushing out of her dad's lab and her house, sprinting down the street the opposite way of school, knowing that if she ran fast enough, her past self and Dib could possibly spot her when they got stuck at a red light. So she was initially forced to go the back way. Which also unfortunately happened to be the longer route of the two, it did however pass Zim's home and Gaz remembered him being late today, since she was so entertained by the teacher yelling more at Zim than actually teaching. But that was back then…or um…soon to be back then? And she wouldn't let it happen again.

She pushed herself a little bit harder until she got into a full on sprint and was zipping through back alleys and taking corners in stride until she spotted Zim's house. They had five minutes before school started and she was lucky enough to find that he was just exiting his house, heading towards his car that he retrieved to look more normal to the human race.

"ZIM!" She shouted, almost to relieved to breathe. She noticed he didn't yet have his disguise on and was just carelessly dragging it behind him, along with his bag.

His antenna snapped up when he heard his name being called and his eyes slowly pierced into Gaz's gaze. He did NOT look pleased to see her at such an early time in the morning. "Wait up!"

He looked like he wanted to just brush her off and drive away, but his gaze quickly dropped back down to the ground and he waited. Gaz ran up to him and slowed to a stop next to him, "Thanks for waiting."

"What do you want Gaz human? I'm already going to be late." His voice was icy cold and his eyes held no emotion in them as he looked at her, waiting for a response.

"I um…" She hadn't exactly planned all this out, but she knew something was wrong, just from his demeanor. "I need a ride to school."

"And why should I give you one?" He retorted, shoving his bags in the back seat before shutting the door and paying all his attention to her.

Gaz was already at a loss for words now. She didn't want to be questioned by him; she merely wanted to help him without revealing why she was helping him, "Because if you don't….I um…I'll tell Dib that you planted spy cameras in our house. And then you'll never hear the end of it."

Zim growled and lowered his antenna, "Do you have any idea how many times I have tried to remove those inferior things? They are of no use to me anymore." She just quirked an eye brow and put her hands on her hips, giving him a look. He stared at her for a moment before growling and unlocking the rest of his car, "Get in."

"That's what I thought," She muttered to herself, plucking the door handle open and slipping into the vehicle, surprised to find the seats warm instead of cold as most cars sitting out all night would be, "How do you keep your seats warm?" She calmly asked while buckling up.

"Zim built this car; I think I know how to add a couple extra features to it." He snorted, before zipping his dark pink jacket up more, "Though Zim does not understand how you think it is warm. I find it to be freezing in here."

"Really?" Gaz was actually surprised to hear this. "How hot is your normal body temperature?"

"It is as hot as it needs to be, little Gaz," He answered gruffly, "Did the Dib send you here to bother me this morning?"

"No, no I just came alone."

"What reason could you possibly have for leaving your home late to see me, only to catch a ride and be late to school?" He questioned, slowly backing the car out of his drive way and putting it into first gear to get it started.

"My reasons are what they need to be Zim," She countered, smirking to herself when he shot a glare over at her. Silence followed as Gaz watched him shift the car smoothly as they pulled through traffic crowded streets, "Why is your car manual? Aren't these things thousands of years old?"

"I am 190 on my home planet," Zim growled.

"Your point?" Gaz asked, crossing her arms and giving him another look.

"I like the simpler things. They tend to prove to be more of a challenge when building them. That and Gir bought the wrong supplies at the store back when I was making this." He sighed after that and gripped the wheel tighter, making Gaz internally smack herself. She should've guessed Gir had something to do with it. And that was part of why Zim was lonely. With Gir gone, he didn't have any minions. And to be frank, she hadn't seen the little moose thing in a while either.

"Zim," Gaz said quietly, making his antenna perk as he looked over at her, "Are you…ok?"

Seeming a bit taken back by her comment Zim had to stop and think of how to reply, "Fi-"

"Don't lie to me." She interrupted, looking at him through vibrant amber eyes. Zim stopped again before looking away. "Zim, please tell me."

"We're here," he growled lowly, stopping in front of the school and reaching back to grab his wig and contacts. Gaz wanted to push more but she knew that probably wasn't the best idea as she waited for him to put on his disguise.

He didn't put it on right again, so this time, Gaz decided to help him, "You're antenna are hanging out."

"And?" He snapped, making her internally punch him.

"Shut your trap and put your contacts in," she hissed lowly, reaching over and gently pushing his antenna back under the fabric of his wig. He jumped when she touched him, but at least he didn't jerk away from her. "There, much better now."

"Zim didn't ask for your help, human," He frowned, glaring over at her through his recently put in contacts.

"I didn't ask for your permission," She merely shrugged, getting out and waiting for him to get his stuff.

"Why are you still here?" He asked, noticing that she didn't have a bag, nor was she dressed in her normal scary attire, plus her skull pendant was behind the rim of her shirt, not in front. His eyes narrowed upon noticing these minor imperfections and he quickly started gaining suspicion.

"We have first period together. I thought if we were going to get yelled at, we might as well get yelled at together."

"You are acting very strangely, Gaz human, are you ill?"

"It's just Gaz, Zim…actually it's Gazelene but only my parents call me that…or I guess just my parent now." Zim's expression hardened slightly at this as he stepped forward toward her.

"What happened to your mother unit?"

"She was having an affair with another man and left us when we were just babies," Gaz answered calmly. The fact that her mother abandoned her all those years ago had always bothered her, but she was more open about it now, not that anyone would actually normally discuss this sort of thing.

"Natural mothers on Irk are forbidden to leave their smeets for any reason until they're old enough to go to the academy. If a mother unit leaves, she is hunted down and killed and her children are sent off to be cloned." Zim said, curiously eyeing the fact that she didn't have much make up on this morning either.

"What if she's being abused by the father?"

"Father's usually aren't present in an Irken family. Most male Irkens move into the military as soon as the opportunity shows itself."

"Is that what you did?"

"Zim was a clone, not a defective natural born." He scoffed, "Red and Purple thought cloning was much more efficient for the Irkens."

"Don't you mean your tallest?" Gaz asked as they walked the hall toward first period. Zim clenched his teeth at that, along with his fists and initially crushed the spine of the book he was holding. Gaz heard the crack of the book's back breaking and looked over at Zim to see he'd stopped moving.

"I forgot something in my car," He said in an eerily quiet voice.

"Ok, then let's go back and get it."

"I wish to go alone Gaz," Zim snapped.

"What about first period?"

"Go alone," He growled back, taking a moment to step into her personal bubble and reach over to grab and pull her necklace string up, using his other hand to grab the skull pendant and neatly let it go above her stomach, "Next time, when you lie to Zim, make sure you keep your pendant out. It's easy to see your lying when it's put away."

"What?" She said, shocked at how observant he was, "How did you know that?"

"I fight with your brother constantly; you lie to him about where you go nearly every day after school. I always see you go to that filthy human restaurant instead of doing your homework at the library." He answered turning and walking away without another word.

Gaz stood there speechless for a moment before growling and crossing her arms. She actually couldn't go to first period without being seeing by her former self. So Gaz, being the sister of an obsessive supernatural observer, did what she learned to do best.

Create chaos within the school and get her former self out of it.

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_**A/N: What a way to end a chapter huh? PATHETICALLY WTF. Anyways, this was a rough draft made yesterday at 3 am and I did not proof read it. I was pretty much writing while asleep at my key board XD. Sorry if the characters might be a little OOC from here out, but attitudes change when you grow up and get the shock of your life. I would know :). **_

_**I just picked a couple reviews that I wanted to respond to and I'm sorry if you wanted to be responded to and weren't. Just let me know and I will make sure to say something next chapter for you!**_

_**Mrryantoyou: First of all I just want to say that I don't have enough words in my mind to express how thankful I am to have someone like you in my life, even if it's just through a computer screen. You are probably one of the single most amazing and nice people I've ever met. I am so thankful I have your support and I may look you up to say hi sometime! Secondly I'm glad I haven't disappointed you with the story, but you initially made me make this into a chapter book! Your kind words and pleas in the first ever chapter made me feel...well great. It made me feel like I truly wrote something that someone physically enjoyed and had the courage to express that enjoyment to the rest of the world. I should dedicate this book to you Ryan and in fact I will. You are a wonderful friend, person and supporter and I am more than happy to have you in my life. I think that we will be very good friends in the near future. I hope you enjoyed this chapter too, even though I wasn't as fond of it, and don't be afraid to shoot me a PM whenever you feel! I can't promise I'll reply right away! But I will get back to you! **_

_**And finally to AndyH: You review impacted me greatly as well. I'm glad that this story is moving to you because it's moving to me too and I really appreciate the fact that you took time out of your day to tell me that. If you believe you are a nobody, then I'm sorry but you're wrong. You are not a nobody to me. You're in Fact someone really cool that was nice enough to give me some extremely good feed back. I've noticed a lot of nobodies in real life, become somebodies on this site, through writing, reviews, favorites, follows, PM's and friend ship. So just remember if anyone ever makes you feel like a nobody...well you have friends on the other side of the computer screen that can always spare a good chunk of her time to talk. Pm me anytime and I hope you keep on reviewing! You are also one of the nicest people I've met and I thank you for your sympathies. My acknowledgements are with you and I hope you have a more than wonderful day or night. Because you're wonderful to me! **_

_**Again I'm sorry in advance for anyone who was not recognized here that might've wanted to be. Let me know and I will never count you out! My Authors notes might just get a bit longer though CX. **_

_**Please keep on reviewing, following and favoriting. You guys are some of the best and if anyone needs and or wants to talk, well you know where to find my profile to PM me! Goodnight all! And I hope you forgive the horrible writing of this chapter! **_

~Deathwish1234


	4. OH THIT X3

_**A/N: Hi everyone, I'm back! Miss me? Probably not X3. Well I'm sure you never thought it was coming but here's chapter four C:. There are some of my own head cannons in this chapter and slight OOC ness in it. Please forgive me on that, I just thought it would make the story more interesting. I wasn't able to proof read this so I'm sorry in advance for any mistakes. **_

_**For all the PM's I've gotten from wonderful friends and fans, I will respond eventually. I've been recovering from head surgery and WHOOHOO am CANCER FREE NOW BABY! YEAH. It feels great to not have to be concerned the cancer now, that stress is gone. The doctors said they hopefully got it all out and it's being tested now. I'm hopefully getting my stitches out tomorrow which will be wonderfullll! **_

_**This chapter was actually chapter four and five kind of crushed together. I felt bad for not updating for so long. Part of chapter Five is in this, mainly just the ending confrontation between Gaz and Zim but the rest of it will be continued upon,(Hopefully) edited and posted one day. **_

_**Please enjoy and PLEASE KEEP REVIEWING, FAVING AND FOLLOWING! It helps me want to write and update faster. So if you like the story, refer it to a friend who may like it as well! The more people like the book and the more attention it gets the more I'll be inclined to make it a good long chapter book FULL OF DRAMA AND THE ART OF ROMANCE X3. **_

_**Thanks for all the support from everyone who wished me luck in surgery! I very much so appreciate it! but now onto the story eh? **_

_**I don't own IZ or make money off of it. But I do own the plot and story line. Please don't copy write it. I would be very unhappy if it was copied! **_

_**Deathwish1234**_

* * *

Standing around in the hall, Gaz wondered what she could do that would make her former self uncaringly leave school for the rest of the day. It meant she had to get everyone out of their classes and probably find a way to get her game slave and take the batteries out. Even the thought of doing that to herself irritated her. No one touched her game slave. NO ONE.

She hadn't seen Zim come back from his car yet, so she figured she had a little bit of time. She saw all the annoying brats sitting in the classrooms getting lectures that no one wanted to hear from their teachers. It's not like anything they were learning in school would actually help them in real life.

That's part of why Gaz never really wanted to try. She understood some classes helped shape a human's life and prepares them for their own life. But she didn't see any classes being offered that would teach someone life skills like how to pay the bills and what decisions to make when buying a car. It bothered her more than anything. Of course she found the stuff interesting, especially history but honestly, who the hell cares what happened in the past. It's not her fault they were idiots and fucked everything over. They always say you have to learn history so it doesn't repeat itself. Why not just let it run its course? The human race will cower before her one day anyways, why not just start now?

She grinned when her target was acquired. Just a poor random fool that decided that he had to pee at the wrong time. She recognized him. He was freakier than Dib's ginormous head and he had the most _annoying ass voice _that a human being could possibly have. She'd been planning on destroying him soon, but at least this way she could kill two birds with one stone.

"Hey Keef," She said in a fake friendly tone.

He smiled as his eyes bulged slightly, "Hi Gazzy! How are you doing!?" Gaz's eye twitched in annoyance. He was worse than iggins was but he learned his lesson too after trying to take away what was rightfully hers.

"Good, good. You're still obsessed with Zim right?"

"HE'S MY BUDDY!" Keef shrieked, making her want to break his face right then and there. "Why, does he miss me? I miss him? I remember that one time when we-."

"Yeah that's nice," Gaz interrupted, glaring at him before trying to control her anger toward him, "Zim isn't feeling very good today, I need your help to make him smile."

"OH NO!" Keef screamed again, "NOT MY BUDDY! I know! I'll throw him a party! It'll be the best party ever with balloons and ZIM. Oh he'll be so pleased! I'll even bake him a cake!" Oh how she wanted to turn his face redder than the color of his hair right now.

"Oh no no, he's…allergic to cake," She lied, grinning slightly when Keef looked sad. 'That's right annoying rat, suffer in your own self-pity…self-control Gaz, self-control.' She then thought, clasping her hands together and trying to fake a smile. "But I know something that will make him happy."

"REALLY?" Keef asked, so excited that Gaz was almost worried he'd stain her clothes if he blew up. Then she'd really destroy him. Every fiber of him.

"Yeah…" She smirked, loving the fact that she was evil, "Come on, I'll show ya."

He happily followed her, skipping like a fool. Oh how she wanted to just snap his leg right now, 'Patience Gaz' she thought to herself, spotting the fire alarm at the end of the hall. "Zim's having a bad day at school today, he needs to get out and be in the sunshine. So here's what's going to happen."

Keef leaned in closer, anticipating a plan as she started cracking her knuckles and smiling evilly.

Meanwhile, Zim was sitting alone in his car. His knees were pressed firmly into his chest and he wrapped his arms around them, leaning his forehead down onto his knees in grief. He felt so internally destroyed. He hadn't a clue as to what he did wrong but when he tried to offer himself to his tallest as every Irken is issued to do at this time of year, he was rejected and demoted. It made him feel horrible. 'It's because I'm so short. It's all my fault,' He thought unhappily to himself.

Every year near the summer time, each Irken was supposed to offer themselves to the tallest. They were to do anything and everything until their tallest were pleased with them. This is also often when the Tallest chose who had the best qualities in height and skill to be cloned and who didn't, so they just became normal citizens of Irk that were free to breed during the upcoming mating season. All smeets were sent to an academy whether they were naturally born or cloned. So they all became soldiers one way or the other, but some of them just stood out more than others.

He was amazing, why had his tallest refused his offerings and affections? They called him horrible names, but defect was the one that hurt the worst. That was the lowest possible thing you could call an Irken. Zim would rather be called a whore or a betrayer, but a defect? That hurt.

He wanted to believe the tallest saw every Irken as important, even if they were small. They were supposed to value their races life and cherish every one of their subjects, but they lied. Zim's claws dug into the fabric of his pants just thinking about it and he ground his teeth together. It was worse because it wasn't Zim's fault that he was small and…defective. Rebels against the empire screwed with the machinery and hatched him too early, then gave him a prototype PAK that was supposed to be an upgrade from what older Irkens had, smaller and better. But it was a failed prototype and he'd been the unlucky one to get it. What's worse is that his 'loins' came from the tallests themselves. Every Irken that was cloned was given a tiny bit of either Red or Purples DNA to make them even better, he clearly got Red's genes as they looked pretty similar but now they hated him.

Angrily, Zim slammed his fist down onto the dash board of his car, gritting his teeth together and using his other hand to clench a fist full of the hair on his wig. Today he was to get a call from them for demoting but they told him yesterday they might not even contact him. He was no longer an Irken to them, just another thorn in their side.

It had taken all these years on Earth just for Zim to see that his Tallest had tried multiple times to kill him, but he was so danger prone as it was that he was just able to wade his way through any trouble that he got into. Even after all that, he still tried so hard to make things right and make them work. But even then he was denied. And even after he offered to service them sexually he was still denied. The thought made him hit his dash board again. Usually if an Irken couldn't satisfy their tallest through displays of loyalty, smarts and strength then pleasure was the only other way to go. It was nearly unheard of now a days and it was degrading to have to use that to satisfy someone you strive every day of your life to please in other ways. It was worse when the taller Irkens would pick on the small ones like Zim especially during mating season. All the taller soldiers were always really aggressive and very touchy feely in the showers during that time of year. They would tease Irkens like Zim. Getting them to believe that they cared about them and valued their life when in reality they didn't give two shits if the shorters lived or died. It was agonizing. It made Zim even angrier to know that that's exactly what his former Tallest did to him.

The more he thought about the lies he was told all his life, the angrier he got. He wanted to kill someone, he wanted to blow this fucking planet up just to show the Tallests just how wrong they were about him. He debated challenging his Tallest for leadership, which wasn't uncommon on Irk but it was extremely rare that a shorter Irken won a fight for leadership against its tallest. Not to mention the tallest have an entire armada at their fingertips that they are permitted to use in a fight for dominance. But let's be realistic here. Zim, against the entire Irken Empire? He wasn't some super Irken that could just avoid death when it looked him in the eye. It was preposterous to even think about trying to take over the Irken Empire all by himself. Physically impossible actually. Zim could barely win fist fights with other short Irken soldiers, but to take on highly experienced Elites who never miss a shot? It was more than doubtful.

"Why'd I have to be the one fuck up?" He voiced quietly to himself, "Why not Tak, she's the one who couldn't become an invader. It wasn't my fault she wasn't smart enough to get out of that testing chamber herself. A REAL invader would've been able without the assistance of another Irken." He sighed and ripped off his wig at the thought, throwing it into the back along with his contacts, "Fuck this planet. I just want to d-." He stopped himself mid-sentence when a VERY loud explosion was heard. The shock wave was enough to shake his vehicle and he instantly heard the fire alarm go off. "I wonder if Dib's head finally exploded…"

He saw vile children flooding out of the school seconds later and easily spotted the Gaz human. He was more than confused when he saw that she was in different attire then when he saw her just fifteen minutes ago. She was also headed straight off of school grounds with her gameslave tightly clutched in her hand. She looked pissed off but satisfied at the same time. Zim was confused; Gaz had nothing with her this morning. Unless her brother unit brought her all her stuff then how did she get it?

His curiosity flared as he watched her trot away toward home. He had to find out how the hell she did that. He was about to start his car and follow her when suddenly his passenger door opened, startling him.

"WHO DARES-," He stopped again upon seeing it was once again Gaz. The other Gaz. Now he was really thrown for a loop.

"Schools out for the day, luckily it's Friday so Whoohoo, three day weekend." She said, smacking her hands together as if she had just completed a job. Zim wanted to question her right then and there, but he was more bothered that she came back to his car than anything else.

"Why are you in Zim's car?!" He snapped, glaring at her.

"Because you're the idiot who's just staring at the burning school in fascination without his disguise on where plenty of people can see you," She growled back, reaching back and slapping his wig down on his head, "Use your brain next time."

Zim growled angrily before rolling down his window, "IT'S JUST PINK EYE. I'M NORMAL." And rolling it back up. He was even more annoyed when Gaz actually snickered at his actions, "I'm sorry, what is it that you find so funny?" He hissed.

"You," She sassed back, "You don't have to tell the humans you're normal or even make excuses, they're not smart enough to notice anyways."

"You degrade your own race?"

"It's not like they don't do the same to me," She scoffed, crossing her arms, "I hate being human. You're lucky you're not."

"Right," Zim said before muttering under his breath, "And you're lucky you are."

"So, I'm bored and lost my gameslave, can I come to your house?"

"No," I answered simply, "But you can in fact leave my car and leave me alone."

"Sucks, I'm coming to your base whether you like it or not." She replied, visibly locking her door for emphasis.

"You realize that I can just kill you if I please to and trust Zim, he wants to kill someone more than anything right now."

"Try it and find out what it's like to be turned inside out one layer of skin at a time," She threatened. Zim had to admit, that did not sound pleasant and after having seen what she can do to another human being he wasn't really interested in the idea of challenging her threats.

"Did the Dib humans head explode? The shock wave shook Zim's car." He changed the subject, huffing when he realized he really wasn't going to win in this situation.

"Not Dib's," She replied simply, "But I heard Keef is having a bit of a migraine today."

"You blew him up?" Zim asked, slightly pleased with the idea of being rid of the annoying red head.

"Nah, he doesn't die no matter what I do." Gaz sighed angrily, "But let's just say he learned why you never touch a girl's gameslave. And today he finally fulfilled his dream of becoming a batter in baseball. He was the bat." Zim smirked at that, slightly enjoying the images of Keef being mauled and beaten by Gaz.

"Clever, but Zim could've done better."

"Really now? What would you have done?"

"Weasels, lots and lots of genetically enhanced weasels."

"With laser eyes?"

"Precisely," He confirmed, pulling away from the school as it continued to burn. The screams of Gaz's victims still echoing through the torched halls.

Zim remembered suddenly why he was suspicious of this Gaz human and decided to test some boundaries, "Why do you wish to come to Zim's base?"

"I'm bored and Dib won't shut the hell up at home. It's a mysterious mysteries marathon today and before long I'll hear his _VILE _voice singing the stupid theme song. No thanks."

"And why not just doom him?"

"The only reason he is still alive today is because Dad won't take us out for family dinner each year unless he's home and not turned inside out. I have to keep the organs on the inside of his body apparently."

"Well that just ruins all the fun," Zim snickered. He enjoyed talking about Dib's demise; it may even give him pleasant dreams tonight. "Your father unit is very smart. I can actually talk scientifically with him."

"Don't even start that," Gaz groaned, "It's always science with him."

"What is wrong with science?" Zim questioned, down shifting his car as they rounded a sharp corner.

"It's all he ever talks about. He still thinks I'm six years old because that's the year he invented super toast. Worst year of my life."

"Hm," Zim replied. "Wouldn't you be interested in science if you could doom your victims with it."

"I already have, remember that kid in the papers last year that got a horrible incurable flesh eating disease?"

"I had a feeling you had something to do with that," Zim muttered in amusement, "And how did you administer him to this flesh eating disease."

"Easy, I stabbed him with a spork at lunch. He was the idiot who tried to sit next to me. So he got what he deserved."

"Fascinating," Zim scoffed. He pulled into his drive way and stopped, just staring at his base for a moment as his claws clenched around the wheel more.

"Home sweet home huh?"

"Sure," Zim growled softly, turning his face away from it, "Well you've come to Zim's base, now leave. I no longer find your presence amusing."

"Funny, I don't remember asking you if I could stay for very long or not," She barked, "Now get out of the car, your voice annoys me."

"It's my car," Zim snapped back, "And my base, if I do not wish for you to come in, then you must go."

"The last time someone told me to leave their home; I burned it to the ground with a snap of my fingers. You wouldn't want the same to happen to your precious base would you?"

"Depends, did it explode or just burn?" He muttered to himself under his breath so Gaz couldn't hear. He got out of the vehicle nonetheless and walked past the lawn gnomes with ease. Gaz followed him, which annoyed him but he had to prepare himself to be demoted anyways, so he'd figure out a way to get rid of her one way or the other.

"Nice place," Gaz muttered, already having seen it before. Though it did change a little bit. Less creepy pictures on the wall and more furniture to make it look like a normal abode.

"Yes, yes. Now amuse yourself. I have business to attend to."

"What kind of business?"

"That's classified," He growled back, feeling annoyed with her prying. He so badly wanted her to just leave already, but he was grateful that she had gotten everyone out of school and made him have a good laugh at the thought of Keef dying painfully so he'd tolerate her for a little bit longer.

"How's the invader job going?" And there goes the tolerance.

"NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS!" He shouted angrily, glaring at her and clenching his fists, "I don't know what the hell you have planned Gaz fool but I can assure you I am not amused any more. If the Dib human was stupid enough to send his little protégé to pry into my private life then you might as well just go home! I am not afraid to get my hands dirty and I am sure as hell not afraid to kill you if you even so much as glanced into my life again!" He stopped after that, breathing hard and glaring daggers at her. He hadn't meant to get THAT angry with her, but she'd really hit a nerve. He didn't have the patience for this right now and he was naturally more aggressive during this time of year anyways.

Gaz did not look pleased with his words, in fact a scary purple aura started surrounding her and her amber eyes flashed red and narrowed. But she blinked and they went away along with the aura. Zim was curious with that; she was physically trying to hold herself back from destroying him. Why?

"You're something else Zim. And don't you ever call me Dib's protégé if you want to keep whatever alien junk you have. It was just a question, god you're worse than Dib when he's on his man period."

Zim growled angrily and air choked her, trying to recompose himself, "Why don't you go amuse yourself elsewhere? I have much more important things to do then deal with the likes of you."

"Fine, I'm going to explore you're base," She hissed back, storming off in another direction.

"HEY!" Zim snapped. He didn't have time for this, "Computer, watch the Gaz human; make sure she doesn't do anything stupid that would cause me to have to kill her."

"Whatever." It replied as it started doing its job.

Zim scowled at its lack of cooperation before shrugging it off and taking off his coat and shirt. He'd have to return them today to his Tallest and he wasn't allowed to wear them during his demotion. He was supposed to be bare for a reason and that reason was shame.

As much as he didn't want to let the tallest's have their way, he was also conflicted about his loyalties to Irken custom. And Irken custom said that all soldiers being demoted had to be bare from the head down to the stomach and they were not allowed to raise their antenna or challenge their tallest in any way. It was very disrespectful if and Irken broke the custom and could lead to consequences. Some being as bad as execution. Though at this point, even that sounded better than living out an Irken life span alone on a dying planet.

He took the elevator down into his lab and took off his invader pants, replacing them with normal black pants. His entire Invaders uniform had to go back to his tallest today so he also had to give up his gloves and boots which freaked the hell out of him. He'd never EVER exposed his hands unless he was trying to please his Tallest and even then he didn't like it. Back when he was slightly respected by his Tallest he would occasionally take his gloves off especially after he'd been noticed for being spunky by them when he was still a trainee in the Invader's academy. That meant the world to him. His tallest had actually noticed him! The shortest Irken in the academy was noticed before the tall ones were. Of course this later led to him being beaten up and harassed but he felt that it was worth it back then.

He quietly folded his uniform and set it on a pile on the monitor's dash board, sitting down and awaiting their call.

He waited and waited and waited for what felt like ever. He hadn't has a clue as to when they would call and he was beginning to feel the depression pooling in his stomach again. They were probably just going to kick him out and ignore him like a lowly dog. The thought didn't make him feel good.

He glanced around the lab, scowling at how much he'd changed to fit his Tallest's liking over the year. Everything was purple and red just as they liked. Everything was advanced and Irken stamped, just like they wanted. Everything was perfect. Just like they wanted.

He gritted his teeth again and clenched his fist, so angry with the whole concept but mostly hurt. The least they could do is keep him around and just kick him out of the military. He wouldn't be so much in their antenna then. He'd just be another citizen and after settling in, he might've even debated finding a mate. But they ripped that all away from him and for what. It's not like he'd actually hurt them personally before. He never talked back to them, he never threatened them, never challenged them. He was the perfect little subject to them just with a few quirks. A few that apparently they couldn't accept.

"Sir," he jumped nearly ten feet when it addressed him, not expecting it to rip him so violently from his thoughts.

"What!" He spat at it, glaring angrily at the fact that he'd been startled by it.

"The human is in the lab rifling around. She paid me twenty bucks not to throw her out. But she never said anything about alerting you."

"And you accepted a BRIBE over your duties!" Zim shouted at it, "OF ALL PIECES OF MACHINERY! I HAD TO GET THE ONE THAT ACCEPTS BRIBES."

"Well there's just this really cute taco picture that I've wanted to buy and hang up somewhere."

"I honestly don't know why I keep you." Zim hissed to it, "Where is the human!?"

"In your personal quarters." It replied like it was no big deal.

"WHAT!" Zim shouted again, "HONESTLY THAT DOOR IS LOCKED AT ALL TIMES COMPUTER. HOW DID SHE GET IN?"

"She promised me another twenty if I let her in." It answered, "Not like she's causing any harm, she's just rifling through some boxes." Zim groaned loudly and yanked on his antenna angrily. He stood up without a word and walked over to a certain part of his lab, snatching a plasma pistol off the wall and making sure it was loaded before angrily stalking off down the hall.

"I'm going to kill that stupid ass human," He hissed under his breath as he shoved his bedroom door open. Gaz was in there with a box labeled GIR on it. Zim felt his breath catch in his throat, wondering what she wanted with that. She was shocked to see he was holding a weapon against her, "Drop the box."

"You aren't serious." Zim growled and fired at the wall, disintegrating part of it that the computer started fixing again instantly.

"I'm dead fucking serious. Drop the box." Gaz, startled at his aggression dropped the box with a loud clank, really pissing him off, "HEY! Gir isn't just a piece of trash you know."

"You're the one who said drop the box dumbass," Gaz growled back.

"Move, now," He commanded without missing a beat, "I warned you to stay out of my personal belongings you foolish human, now move, I want answers and I want them now." She didn't seem humored by his threats, "First, who the hell are you?"

"Gaz, duh." She replied sarcastically, "Was that not obvious."

"BE QUIET!" He snapped, "I saw the real Gaz human leave the school today and head home after the fire drill. I didn't understand why there were two of you at first. But now I get it. You're some cheap fake that Dib hired to delve into my life and get him answers."

"HA that's rich. Why would anyone work for Dib?" Gaz countered. "I just wanted to see if I could fix Gir."

"And how did you know he was broken!" Zim snarled back, his finger on the trigger as his eyes flashed in fury. She was silent at that, not knowing how to answer him, "That's what Zim thought. Now walk and if you so much as take one wrong step I will not hesitate to kill you."

"Man, you're much worse than Dib when he's on his man period," Gaz rolled her eyes, walking by Zim as he shoved the gun into her back and shoved her along.

"And you're much worse than Dib at spying. But that is to be expected from a fake."

"I'm not a fake Zim, there are reasons why there are two Gaz's alive right now. But you can't know any of them."

"The hell I can't," He spat back, "I'm the one holding the weapon; if I ask you a question you better damn well answer it if you value your pretty little head."

"Please, don't even try," She scoffed, crossing her arms angrily, "I know something's up and I just want to help."

"Invaders need no one." Zim hissed icily, 'not even their tallest,' he thought to himself. This just made him angrier which made the situation worse for Gaz. "Turn around."

She did so boredly and stared at him, tapping her fingers on her arm. "Who are you?"

"Gazelene Membrane, the one and only." She answered again, making him growl.

"THE TRUTH! You pathetic excuse for a human. The Gaz human does not just merely help someone. You are clearly a fake."

"She does if she's seen something horrible that she feels responsible for." She spat back perking Zim's curiosity.

"And what would that be?"

"A friend of mine committed suicide. I didn't realize how much he was hurting in the few weeks before it happened. Nor did I realize that he actually liked being around me. That'd be a first."

"You have a brother whom enjoys your company," Zim growled back, pulling the hammer of the gun back, "Any more lies you want to say before I kill you?"

"First of all, Dib is forced to enjoy my company. We're siblings and secondly, I'm not lying to you. You said yourself earlier that you knew when I was lying because my skull pendant was behind my shirt, not in front of it. Where is it now Zim?"

"I don't care, what were you doing with Gir?"

"I already told you, I wanted to see if I could fix him."

"No one can fix him!" He snarled ferociously, "Especially not a lowly human such as you!"

"Sir," Computer said aloud.

"NOT NOW!" Zim shouted back at it.

"Well I thought I could at least try!" Gaz snapped back.

"Why? To tell Dib human how he works!? To mess with Irken technology? To expose me!?"

"Uhh Sir," The computer said again.

"NOT NOW YOU STUPID MACHINE!" Zim spat at it again.

"I am just trying to help you idiot!" Gaz snapped back.

"SIR!"

"WHAT COMPUTER. I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING HE-." He stopped when he saw his Tallest on the monitor, not looking amused with his displays of aggression and dominance. He'd just broken Irken custom and he wasn't even there to accept their call properly.

Numbly, the weapon dropped from his hands and he snapped his antenna back onto his head, trying to be submissive toward them. He tried to motion for his computer to take Gaz away but all of them just seemed to be in shock.

"Wow, we took time out of our schedule for this?" Purple said in irritation. Zim's stomach sank even further when he saw that they had a whole audience of Irkens behind them, all to watch his demotion.

"Uh oh…" His computer muttered behind him.

* * *

_**A/N: Sorry for the abrupt ending, but I had to cut it off somewhere. And sorry that there is so much language in this. I figured since all the characters are much older now, they're probably gonna cuss like sailors. Plus, I live with a war Vet and when his buddys are over GOOD GOD. I could write an entire book on how many F bombs they drop. Zim's a soldier whether people want to believe that or not. So I figured, when a soldier gets angry like that, he's not going to hold back. And he didn't. ;3. **_

_**I hope you guys enjoyed and PLEASE REVIEW. That would mean a lot to me. :3. Sorry the chapter seemed word vomitish. I was just going for it when I wrote it XD. WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT? NO ONE KNOWS. **_

_**Want to find out? Keep reading lovelies X3 and keep reviewing. I get so motivated to write when I get reviews. **_

_**ALSO IMPORTANT: Please respect that in this book there will be a lot of my personal head cannons about IZ. If you don't agree with them that's your deal and your opinion. But this is MY book and MY story. I can choose what I put in it. So please respect my head cannons and don't be that one asshole that's always like "THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN MEH MEH MEH" SUCK IT UP. IT HAPPENS HOW I IMAGINE IT XD. Sorry just had to get that out there. **_

_**If anyone wants to do fan art for this story, just give me credit for the story and ASK first. It will most likely always be allowed! **_

_**Thank you! AND PLEASE REVIEW IT'S NOT THAT HARD PEOPLE. **_

_**Deathwish1234**_


	5. Demotion

_**A/N: I KNOW THIS IS FREAKY. ME, DEATHWISH1234 UPDATING A BOOK IN LESS THAN A WEEK? FTW I KNOW. But, this is a celebration chapter for me. I got my stitches out and my results back on if I had any more cancer in my body. everything has come back NEGATIVE! I am officially CLEARED of all cancer right now! I was so happy that I started crying in the doctors office! It was relieving enough to have the present cancer removed but now that they have tested the other possible cancers they feared I had and have the tests come back negative I FEEL LIKE I CAN FLY. SOOO much weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I wanted to say thank you to everyone who had been supporting me the last year of my life that I've known and been affected by the cancer I HAD (Got it feels so good to use past tense right there). **_

_**So this is my thank you chapter for all the support I got. I spent the whole night writing this. and in the chapter the characters are SUPER OOC. So I am sorry, this is the start of the personality changes :3. It's a fast paced chapter, because I'm not good at writing about the tallest and seems kind of bad to me. But I was so excited I had to update something, so please forgive my lack of editing. **_

_**I realized last chapter did have a lot of profanities in it after reading a kind review and felt kind of bad. A good story doesn't need all that in it. It makes me as an author look incompetent because it shows a lack of vocabulary. I am sorry for all those profanities and if I read this over right, there are none in this chapter. Just another thank you! **_

_**PLEASE REVIEW, FOLLOW AND FAV. SUGGEST THIS BOOK TO A FRIEND, JOIN THE REVIEW FAMILY! LETS HAVE SOME FUN WITH THIS! :333333. **_

_**So yeah, sorry for the kind of bad chapter, but thank you and lets celebrate huh!? WHOOHOOO. **_

_**I don't own IZ.**_

_**Finally free: That's me :D**_

* * *

"S-Sirs, I can assure you-." Zim stuttered, though he was cut off by Red.

"Don't you dare speak out against your Tallest at a demotion!" Red snapped, hovering closer to the screen as Zim flinched and tried even harder to pin his antenna down. He submissively got onto his knees and looked up at his Tallest, awaiting recognition to just get this over with. "Good," Red continued, glaring him down as purple moved to stand by his partner.

"You knew we were going to call today defect," Purple hissed, taking over for his partner, "Yet you still chose to show a display of dominance in our presence. Do you realize the consequences of this?"

"Y-Yes Sir but I-"

"I said do NOT speak out!" Red shouted again, glaring Zim down hatefully as he coward under his leaders look. He broke eye contact after a moment of staring, giving Red full rights to dominance between them. He was acting almost like a hurt puppy that's just been yelled at and locked outside. "What's worse is that you've let a native into your base, showing her and Irken gun and your true appearance. You disgust me Zim. And you have the gall to call yourself an Invader."

"Not anymore he doesn't," Purple sneered, grabbing a bag of donuts a guard handed him and slowly eating them.

"It's not his fault!" Gaz snapped, making Zim's heart nearly stop. It was bad enough that he had been disrespectful, but for a lowly human to speak out against the rulers of an almighty empire. That was suicide in the making.

Red growled and shot his gaze up to Gaz, "And just who are you?"

"Gaz," She replied, standing tall as Zim lowered himself until his belly was to the floor and his hands were over his antenna. He knew what was coming next. And it wouldn't be Gaz who'd be in trouble.

"Great, so not only has Zim broken Irken custom and disrespected us, but he brought a bratty, out spoken female into the works too," Purple grunted, making Red nod in agreement, "And just why aren't you bowing, human!?"

"You aren't my leaders," Gaz hissed back, "And from what I've heard, you aren't Zim's either."

Zim's eyes shot wide open and he glared back at her, "GAZ!" He snapped at her, "You aren't helping! LEAVE ALREADY!"

"ZIM!" Red's voice boomed through the monitor, making Zim cower again, clenching his eyes shut under his leader's fury, "You are the most dishonorable soldier I have ever laid eyes upon. You're lucky I don't ask you to deactivate yourself right now."

"Why DON'T we do that?" Purple asked, tossing his empty bag of donuts down and snapping his fingers so someone would bring him another.

"Someone with such dishonor only deserves to suffer an endless life of pain and loneliness," Red confirmed, starting to pace in front of the monitor.

"Yes my Tallest," He murmured onto the cold metal floor of his base, "If that is what you wish."

"Do you understand your crimes against the empire Zim?" Red asked in an icy tone, "You're the most genocidal moron ever to be made into an Irken. You ruined half of your home planet, killing one of your previous Tallest at the same time. You decided to quit being banished and committed the crime of coming back against the control brains will." Zim's eyes clenched shut tightly as he was reminded of every memory. He was proud that he'd caused so much destruction in impending doom 1. Invaders were supposed to cause destruction and he just happened to get…over excited about being picked. He was the shortest soldier, yet he was picked as an invader for such a huge operation. It was like a never ending high that destroyed his sense of reality at the time. "Normally it'd be punished by death. But death is just an easy way out for you, isn't it defect?" Zim cringed at the word, clenching his fists tightly as he tried to just take it with a grain of salt and get the demotion over with. "Answer me defect!" Red spat, making Zim flinch again.

"My Tallest…" He started, quickly finding that his voice was not in the working mood at the moment, "you are always right." 'I'm not a defect,' he thought to himself as he glanced up to see fury in Red's eyes. Clearly it wasn't the answer he was looking for.

"You really are pathetic," Purple mumbled, turning back to the crowd, "Witness this Irken citizens, the most pathetic defect ever to be hatched. Tell your smeets of this abomination. Make them fear being anything like this lowly dog!" All the Irkens cheered in response, making Zim feel worse. He tried not to show any emotion as his heart started pounding painfully in his chest. He wanted to speak for himself but if he did, Irk only knows what Red would do to him. He was hardly afraid of purple, he was clearly just a figure head tallest. But Red was everything that had to do with the military. And if he was a drill Sargent, no Irken would make it through his course. Especially not Zim, not when he hated him so much.

"However, Zim, you are an Irken, one in the same," Red sighed, "And by demand of the control brain, you are allowed access to three Irken inhabited planets, so that we may keep up an image. These are out cast planets you understand, but when that planet your own dies off, you are allowed access to these other three planets until your PAK's life span gives out."

"That drags," Purple grumbled under his breath, even though everyone heard it.

"You are not allowed back on Irk and if spotted, you will be slaughtered on the spot." Zim nodded slowly in understanding. Feeling some relief that he could at least still see some of his people if he so desired to. "Now, let's just get the demoting over with. Purple if you would," Red sighed, glancing at his partner whom took a short step closer to the Zim.

"Irken Invader Zim, you are now being stripped of your titles completely. Please hand in your invader uniform and open your PAK for the end of the demotion." Zim, slowly glancing up at his previous leaders, slunk over to his military uniform which was neatly folded in a pile and place it in a teleporter. He clicked a button and sent it away to his leaders.

"Burn it," Red hissed, looking over to a few guards by the teleporter. Zim whimpered slightly and opened the top circle of his PAK so that they may program him as a defect when the demotion was over. "You understand that you are no longer able to contact us and all your Irken resources will stop updating themselves. You will have to fend for yourself and may never seek help from any other Irken. You may no longer have a job in the military and all your diplomas and graduations will be wiped clean. Finding a job anywhere Irken inhabited will be nearly impossible without an academy diploma. Purple and I are no longer your Tallest but we will always be your superiors in any unlikely situation. If you break an Irken law that affects the empire negatively in any way, there will be a bounty on you and you will be terminated. If you have anything to say, now is the time."

"Yes sirs, I understand," Zim whimpered, looking away in shame, "I have a question if I am granted permission to ask."

"Permission granted," Red sighed, looking at Zim in disgust.

"Since I am no longer an Invader, am I considered an Irken citizen? And if so, am I permitted a family?"

Red and purple glanced at each other before they both broke out laughing hysterically. Zim uneasily waited for them to calm down and to receive an answer. After four minutes of nonstop laughing, Red finally gasped for air and wiped away a tear from his eye, standing straight again as he addressed Zim, "You are a citizen, but are dishonorably an Irken citizen. If you could ever find someone to put up with a screw up like you, then you would be permitted a family, as all citizens are allowed to have."

"Yeah good luck with THAT one!" Purple snickered, giggling to himself and glancing over at Red.

"Since you are no longer an Invader and are being dishonorably discharged, we've given the rest of the invaders and Irkens the right to mock you as they please for the next two minutes starting….NOW!" Red cheered, standing back with purple as the whole crowd erupted with noise. Shouts of slander and profanities were yelled through the screen. People were laughing, pretending to be Zim and acting as if he was truly the stupidest being alive. Some were even insulting the fact that he had short antenna to go along with his short body. Both of which were unattractive features on Irk.

Zim sat silently through it all, not daring to glance up at the screen or raise his antenna in any sort of way. 'This is much worse than I presumed it to be,' he thought to himself, wrapping his arms around his cold body and gently rubbing them up and down.

Two minutes felt like an eternity to him before the Tallest silenced the crowd and stepped back in front of the screen, "Now for the final act, turn around Zim." He did as he was told and hung his head lowly in sadness. His entire species was abandoning him.

The Tallest pressed a button on the other side of the monitor and a tube quickly shot out and grabbed Zim's wrists, pulling him up to his feet before a third came down and attached to his PAK. "Irken Zim," The mechanical voice rumbled through both monitors. It was the control brains, "No longer are you an Invader or a fast food worker. You are stripped of your titles and demoted to the status: Defect. Have a nice day!" It ended, completing its process before dropping Zim to the ground.

"Is there anything else you'd like to say before we part forever?" Red asked as purple pulled out a couple party hats and started putting his on. He looked overly excited now.

Zim merely turned his face away, showing Red that he had nothing. "Alright, LET'S PARTAYYYY!" He shouted, pulling on his party hat and cheering as the entire Irken race did the same. The transmission cut seconds later as soon as a confetti bomb exploded in the auditorium. It was the last vision of his Tallest he'd ever have.

The silence was death-defying in the room as the transmission ended. Gaz was completely shocked and ended up feeling extremely guilty. He probably wouldn't have been treated so harshly if it weren't for her being there and speaking out against his leaders.

Zim blinked rapidly for a moment before slowly standing up and turning toward her. His eyes were cold and hateful as he glared at her, but they held hurt and betrayal in them too, "I hope you're happy now," He hissed, pinning his antenna back further as she stared at him in shock.

"Come on Zim, they were lame any ways." Gaz tried, taking a step closer to him as he growled angrily and jerked his face away.

"Don't you DARE insult my superiors."

"After what they just did to you? You can still defend them?" She asked quietly, starting to reach her hand out when she noticed he was trembling. Whether it was in grief or anger she didn't know yet. "They just disowned you."

"I don't need to hear that from you!" He shouted, glaring at her angrily as his eyes started watering, "If you had not disrupted me, I probably could've been honorably discharged! Now I won't be able to get a good job, I won't be able to do anything I've ever wanted to do! I'll be completely alone the rest of my life!"

"That's not true; you can just stay here on Earth. I can show you how to fit in."

"HAVEN'T YOU DONE ENOUGH!?" He screamed, yanking his antenna as warm tears started over flowing his eye lids and trailing down his face, "I have been ABANDONED by my own species! And…and…" He started sobbing at that, "ALL I EVER WANTED WAS TO PLEASE MY TALLEST! But because of YOU and DIB, I have only succeeded in becoming an enemy of my own people! I no longer have a purpose in this life! I should just do my Tallest one last favor and kill myself!"

"No, that's not true. Come on Zim listen to yourself. You aren't acting normal. This is just a minor setback in your life. You're Zim…nothing stops you."

"SCREW YOU!" He shouted back, frantically wiping his eyes as he tried to gain control of his emotions, "You know NOTHING about me!"

"Yes I do! Dib tells me everything about you, and I have this!" She protested, pulling out the disk that contained the horrible memories of Zim's suicide. "I know that you actually like being around me. We're both evil, I won't deny it, so why don't you just calm down and we'll go blow something up ok?"

"NO!" He snapped, "I wish to be alone! COMPUTER!" Gaz grunted when the computer reached out a tentacle and started escorting her out of the house.

"HEY!" She spat, flailing in its bond, "I'll pay you a whole grand if you let me go!"

"No human. I wish to consult my master alone and he wishes to be alone," The computer said calmly.

"COME ON! Just give me a chance, computer I'm from the future! I know how Zim dies; it's by his own hand. If you kick me out now, who's to say he won't do it again. This is the whole reason I came back. Sure I don't know what I'm supposed to really do right now but you need to give me a chance!"

"I have my orders," It replied coldly.

"What do you want!? I'll give you anything! Just give me ten minutes alone with him!" Gaz pleaded, "Usually, I'd care less about what happens to him. But how he was just treated wasn't right. I doom and destroy people, but sending them away and abandoning them forever? No! That isn't right. If they were going to be so cruel in the first place they should've just put him out of his misery."

"I care for my master Miss Gaz, but he is in no state to be being pestered. Especially if I were to just let this happen." She was going to protest again when he continued, "But it would not be my fault if I were to accidentally leave the front door unlocked. As long as you help and not hurt him, I will leave it unlocked for you."

"YES!" Gaz cheered, kicking her legs out in glee, "Thank you computer, I won't have to doom you now!"

"Yeah, whatever." It replied, dropping her in front of the house before retreating back into the base and leaving the door unlocked like it said it would. Gaz re-entered immediately, but waited a couple minutes when she heard the computer trying to talk to Zim. She couldn't hear what he was replying, but she knew she needed to help him somehow.

She had to admit. She hadn't expected to be that big of a problem when his leaders came into the picture. And she initially felt really bad about it. If she had not seen what Zim does to himself in the future, then she would've continued back sassing his leaders until she felt the argument was over. But the rage and desperation etched on his face when he demanded that she leave struck her down deep. Zim was terrified, and Gaz had never really seen such a submissive reaction from him. He was literally as low as one could go when submitting to another.

She felt that she needed to talk to him…or…or something. Just explain to him that she hadn't meant to intrude on that and if she had known that his banishment/demotion hadn't happened yet, she would've have been so snoopy.

She slowly stepped into the elevator, glaring at the wall as it took her down, "The last time I was in this thing, it tried to kill me," She muttered under her breath, kicking the side of the wall, "Stupid elevator."

Eventually the machine stopped back down at the base, leaving Gaz to step out cautiously. She could hear the computer talking to Zim more clearly now. It sounded like it was trying to reassure him, "Mostly everything here will be left for you master. Gir, minimoose and I included. You will not be alone if that is what you are concerned with."

Gaz peeked around the corner to see that the computer had dropped Zim a warm shirt and jacket, but he had yet to put it on. He was just sitting on the floor, messing around in Gir's box and crying. It disturbed her to see him stooped so low. But she couldn't blame him. She thought the people that bullied Dib were bad. They constantly hurt him and she constantly hurt them back. One even got sent to the nightmare world from which there is no return for him. But Zim was being bullied by his entire species and the humans. That was a low blow and a lot of stress to fall on one teenager's shoulders.

Slowly, Gaz stepped out from around the corner and approached Zim carefully. She saw he was holding Gir in his lap, even though he wasn't functioning or even fixed yet. He was still holding him and looking at him as if he weren't more than a hollow robot. "Zim," She said quietly, making his antenna flatten.

"I thought I told you to leave!" He shouted, glaring over his shoulder at her.

"I broke back in," Gaz answered, covering for the computer. She walked over and sat down next to Zim, who looked really tired of her presence already. He clearly wanted to be alone. But she knew that he shouldn't be alone right now. Being alone is what caused such a horrible reaction from him the first time. And she vowed to never let it happen again.

"Why don't you go ruin someone else's life," Zim's voice cracked as his antenna lowered even further, "You've done a pretty good job of it here."

"I'm sorry," she muttered back. His antenna perked slightly and he glanced over his shoulder, seemingly curious with her behavior even though he still didn't want her around. He grunted and looked away again, lifting his hand to scrub at his tear swollen eyes. There was silence for a long moment before Gaz reached over and grabbed the jacket the computer left for Zim, "You need to put this on. It's freezing cold down here."

"Don't touch me!" He spat as she gently tossed it over his shoulders. "I SAID DON'T-," He stopped when her arms wrapped around his shoulders and just stared into nothing for a moment. He'd never actually been hugged before and Gaz was warm compared to how freezing cold he was. His face scrunched up in pain as he turned around and buried his face in her shoulder, sobbing loudly and clenching the jacket around his body, "-Let go." He'd finished his earlier sentence, clenching his teeth and eyes shut as she just let him work out the pain he was feeling.

Gaz, having a lot of practice with Dib crying every once and while just rubbed Zim's back and calmly said, "I won't."

* * *

_**A/N: DAW DAT ENDING THO. XD No the story is not over. I actually plan on a really complicated fic here. And I hope it'll be a good read to all of you guys. I wanted to make a couple shout outs here so please let me and please forgive me if I didn't shout you out and you wanted to be. just say so and I'll make sure to next chapter!**_

_**Ok first: CatFireFlare: Thank you very much for your review. I realized my profanity in the last couple of chapters had gotten out of hand, and you helped me see the light on that. I am grateful that you took time out of your day to reassure me that I'm not a nobody and compliment me so beautifully. If you ever want to talk, or are having a hard time yourself. I'm open for conversation. Feel no hesitance to send me a PM at any time. I'd be honored to chat. :3**_

_**Nergalreaper904: I really enjoyed your review XD. I'm sure the tallest will get what's coming to them one way or another. And I so agree with your about the teaching subjects etc. That's why I put it in. I really feel like nothing I've been learning is preparing me for my life, which will be starting sooner than I want it to X3. I'm glad you agree with me and I hope you have an absolutely terrific day. **_

_**AND FINALLY: JackFreak1994, I was so happy you reviewed! I watch you on deviant art and I've always loved your ZAGR works. They partially inspired me to write a story like this! Especially your piece "Betrayed" That just made so many ideas start buzzing around in my head. You have an extraordinary talent my dear and I hope you continue on with it for a long time :3. Thank you for liking my story and thank you for cheering on my recovery. The world needs more people like you!**_

_**That's all I wanted to say! Thank you again everyone and PLEASE REVIEW, FAV AND FOLLOW. SUGGEST THE STORY TO A FRIEND. LETS HAVE SOME FUN WITH THIS! 83. **_

_**Livin' and lovin' every minute of life: Deathwish1234 (Ironic) X3**_


	6. STRESS EATING

**_A/N: I'm not dead I promise. I know it's been forever since I've updated but I have no excuse. Sorry for the wait. Thank you for all the follows, favs and reviews. Please keep them coming! Reviews, favs and follows give me inspiration to write, write and WRITE MOAR. So REVIEW! Also I enjoy your inputs. _**

**_What do you want from this story? Action, more romance? Tell it to me straight and I'll see what I can do. This by the way is a slow build up story. Sorry short story reading people. :C_**

**_Review responses: Want me to respond to your review? Let me know! Ask a question, start a slight conversation in the review. I love responding to your thoughts and ideas!_**

**_CatGirlFireFlare: Thank you for the best wishes! and review in general dove! I'm glad you caught the laser weasel reference there X3, had to have some out of the box fun in referencing. I'm glad you felt the affect of the Tallest's cruelty, as I was really trying hard to set a darker mood to this story. It won't be a happy go lucky one to say the least. You're welcome for the review response, the pleasure is all mine to talk to such extraordinary people :3. _**

**_Wolfmoonsshadow: Darling you are asking ALL the right questions. I won't reveal anything now since I love seeing the full effect through writing and your reactions but I hope you stick around with the book long enough to find your answers! ;)_**

**_Guest: Thank you very much for your kind words. I did not let my cancer beat me and I am free now thank god. If you ever need someone to console in for your own misgivings, I promise to keep an open ear. I'm not the best at responding right away-lol just ask AndyH-but I will respond. I promise. Authors promise._**

**_Last responses at the bottom!_**

**_Deathwish1234_**

* * *

Three days…Three days of awkward glances, simple words and vague body language. That was Zim and Gaz's relationship at the moment. Neither Dib nor anyone else knew what had happened between them and to be honest, they weren't all that sure themselves. Any time Gaz tried to approach Zim he would quickly change his route around the school and take a long back alley to his next class. It was starting to irritate her. However she had to admit she was no better, anytime she spotted Zim looking at her, she turned her back to him and acted as if she didn't know.

What exactly had happened, had been a blur. Gaz remembered the emotional moment of weakness Zim had and remembered trying to comfort him but she didn't remember when exactly she had left him or what their last words to each other were. All she remembered was the uneasy feeling of awkwardness.

Constantly, she tried to tell herself she didn't care, she kept Zim from an untimely demise, and her own personal mission was over right? Wrong. Zim stopped talking completely at school. Before he was annoying and everyone-especially Gaz-wanted to cram a pumpkin filled with acid down his throat so he could choke on it. But now, he just sat in each class, staring at the desk and muttering a quick 'I don't know' every time a teacher pestered him with a question. As much as Gaz wanted to enjoy the new perk she had to remember one thing.

This was not Zim.

This was a quick, jaw snapping change that was unexpected and completely out of character for him. When Dib tried to pick on him, he just let it happen. There was no aggression, no trying to be top dog, no nothing. It was almost like Zim's mind had been replaced with a machine that just made him do things that were mandatory for living, nothing else.

Hell, Gaz hadn't even seen a malevolent smirk come from the interstellar traveler since before he found out that he was to be demoted. To say the change disturbed her was an understatement. The truth in the matter was that she was terrified of what exactly was going through his head. He was upset, and people-no matter alien or human-make irrational decisions when they're upset. They debate things that should never be debated by such a young mind and do things twice as bad as what their thoughts provided them images with.

Today had proved to be even worse for Gaz's findings. She had gone out of school during class to avoid her former self and distract her some more. Instead she had found Zim sitting up on the roof of the building holding a pack of cigarettes. Where he'd gotten them was unknown to Gaz, but it concerned her. It meant that Zim was turning to other things and substances to distract from the thoughts and feelings of pain, loneliness and rejection.

She watched him for a moment and felt a tidal wave of relief when Zim tossed the unopened pack across the school yard and punched an air vent instead, cussing loudly when he realized that hitting solid things DID in fact hurt. Though his defense mechanism of displacement was not the best solution, it was better than destroying his body just to forget.

Now Gaz sat on the concrete pillar right outside of school, listening to all the grueling subjects flood out the barely hinged doors. It was the end of the day and everyone was excited to get home and watch some ridiculous show, most likely the angry monkey show or another soap opera. It was the one person who wouldn't be excited that she was looking for.

He was easy to spot, not just because his skin stuck out compared to everyone else. But he also had a certain air around him, a strut if anything the possessed some pride even if he felt down in the dumps. 'There.' She thought to herself, seeing a red and black striped sweatshirt and green skin trotting down the oil slicked steps that lead away from the school.

Gaz said nothing as she stood up, brushed off her dark clothing, stormed over to him, snatched him by the hood of his sweat shirt and drug him behind a corner of the school building. Surprisingly he didn't put up much of a fight once he realized it was Gaz assaulting him. "Let's not," He growled, grabbing her wrist and yanking it off his hood. Once free from her death grip, he tried to escape again, but Gaz wasn't about to let him.

She snatched one of his belt loops and yanked him back, nearly causing him to topple over in the process, "What Gaz human I am a very busy person!"

"No you're not; don't even try that on me." She growled back, making his open mouth close without a retort. "You've been avoiding me."

"No I haven't, I'm simply been ignoring you, but don't worry, the avoiding will commence later."

"And just why have you been avoiding me Zim?" She grumbled, rolling her eyes at how ridiculous and petty he could be sometime. He seemed to think about what he could say that would be a good response but it took a long time to think of an acceptable excuse and the momentary silence was bothering Gaz, "Well?"

"No reason."

"Yeah right."

"And why is it that you suddenly care Gaz?" He challenged, hoping to flip the script a bit.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"That isn't like you. You are out of character, whatever spell your hippo headed brother casted upon you, I cannot help you undo."

"I'm not here asking for your help. I'm here offering my help to you."

"I don't remember asking for it."

"You didn't, but you're getting it so suck it up pretty boy."

"I am not pretty."

"It's an expression Zim. And you're getting off topic." Gaz hissed back. Zim looked distressed and seemed to be growing more and more irritated as their conversation continued on.

"What could a human possibly help me with?"

"You're emotions."

"My what?"

"Please, you have hardly spoken a word to anyone for three days. Are you feeling kinda cold and heavy inside right now?" His silence answered her question, "it's okay to feel that way."

"Maybe within your species." Zim grumbled, glancing away and furrowing his brow. This was obviously a sensitive topic to him.

"And yours too, I'm gonna teach you how this girl deals with them."

"By bashing small children's skulls in with a rusty spoon of doom?" Gaz gave him a look.

"I may love destruction, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to be a girl. Ever heard of stress eating Zim?"

"Only that it's bad for you."

"Those bean stalks only say that because they don't know what their missing. Come on, were going to go to bloaties and I'm going to show you, the best way to get out a feeling."

"Other than doom."

"Yes Zim, other than doom." He huffed and crossed his arms, staring at her for a moment before growling to himself and turning his face away.

"I'm not exactly in the mood to be going to an outing little Gaz."

"Fine, we'll order out. Your house or mine?" She asked, popping her cell out of her black back pack and flipping it open. Yes, she still had a primitive flip phone compared to the smart phones roaming the world, consuming the human mind with pointless games, apps and texts. Or as some would say, she had a 'stupid phone' for a smart phone had many more perks that came with it.

Zim seemed unsure about either decision. If he chose Gaz's base, he would most definitely have to deal with the Dib beast and feel uncomfortable let alone exposed to the naked eye. However if he selected his base to consume fatty foods and rant at, he'd have to feel the hollowness of it. How damp and depressing it felt. It was a feeling that really hadn't left him alone since his demotion. "Zim is unsure which to choose. Will the Dib be home?"

"Yes he will. How about this, we can order out and head to your base to stress eat, then if you're not happy there we can find some other place to go." Gaz offered. It was an acceptable arrangement but Zim was still unsure about Gaz's intentions. She just randomly decided to enter his life, destroy it, then try to rebuild it all in the course of a few days, mere hours to the depressed Irken. It was like a roller coaster that ended without tracks to run on. A confusing spiral stair case with no railing and oil on each step. A downhill slide to be frank.

He could sense that Gaz was getting annoyed with his lack of response, but he was literally lost within his mind. All he felt he wanted was to be left alone to sulk on his own and think over his options in the situation. Things the Tallest had said to him stung and burned like fire fueled with gasoline. A smoldering heap of judgment and denial. "Gaz," He muttered weakly, catching Gaz's shocked focus, "I really just want to be left alone. You and I are nothing alike, and my problems are not yours. My burdens are mine alone and I will bear them as I see fit. Right now, Zim does not feel like sharing the weight of the world."

Surprised to find an arm linked with his, Zim looked down at Gaz in curiosity and discomfort. "I know that's what you think you want Zim. But being alone isn't going to help you. I think this will be good for the both of us. Will you trust me, just this once?" He stared at her for a moment, almost feeling at ease around her before he gave off a curt nod and glanced down.

A hop, skip and leap later and the pair was slowly walking back toward Zim's base with a large pepperoni and cheese pizza in tow. Stiflingly, their arms were still linked. Zim's hand was steadily shoved into his coat pocket and Gaz's hand was hooked around her belt loops. The contact wasn't appreciated, but it wasn't bad either. At least not to Zim. He simple gesture told him that Gaz felt comfortable around him and dare I say it enjoyed his company, but the fact that he didn't pull away meant he felt the same correct? 'No,' Zim thought to himself, biting his tongue, 'She just feels pity toward me, I don't need her nor do I need her help. I should just tell her to leave my presence and never to return. Her persistence is keeping me from making my decisions.'

"Is your base locked?" Gaz's question startled him awake from his thoughts, and he quickly frowned and growled internally to himself. He was much too at ease around this female and it was not supposed to be that way. Only one other time had he ever felt completely at ease around a female but that was years ago and completely irrelevant to his life now.

"No, with all the updates and systems shut down my base can no longer defend itself properly. There are no longer locks on anything." He hesitantly said. Little did Gaz know that no locks also meant all his personal information was unlocked as well. A quick scan of his computer would tell her everything about himself and that alone made his comfort level drop once more.

"Alright," She responded. They had arrived in Zim's drive way now and Gaz quickly became aware of the way Zim suddenly started lagging and almost dragging her back, "Are you okay?"

"Fine." He muttered curtly, staring at the dark windows and dull items he could see through the window.

He reluctantly let her in and entered himself, glancing around embarrassedly. He'd forgotten about a tantrum he'd had the night before and the base hadn't cleaned itself since. "What hurricane passed through here?"

Zim chose not to answer and merely shrugged, thinking of a better place to 'stress eat'. "Why don't we go to my personal quarters to 'rant' as you humans say? Most of the base is um…dysfunctional right now."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"I have no words to say, so no." He responded, pounding on a certain wall and stepping back as the wall slid back and reveled a dark stair case. As Zim stepped down onto each step, Gaz noticed that the panes lit up with a bright pink Irken symbol. As if to light the way. It was neat to say the least. "Coming human?"

"Yeah, neat stairs," She mentioned. It sounded as if she didn't care, but she really was intrigued by technology. It had always made her curious.

Zim merely scoffed and continued down the way, clapping his hands twice. This caused a reaction in crystals that clearly weren't from earth to light up and glow brightly different colors, giving his whole room a purplish hue. "What are those?"

"Light crystals, they respond to sound and absorb sound waves, the waves cause a certain chemical in them to vibrate and as the molecules rub together, they create friction, this creates heat, which initially causes these rocks to glow. There are different sound waves hitting different crystals, if there is a different level of friction, the color changes. You will notice this over time today. It can grow to be irritating, or calming."

"What about when you're silent?"

"Breathing makes noise, but if I am to rest then my antenna create a sound scrambler thus causing the waves to not reach the crystals. No waves, no light. Simple as that."

"That's crazy, where did you find them?"

"I did not find these Gaz, I created them. I initially made them to produce a sound which could put me at ease every night but a mess up of chemicals and time and this happened. Similar natural made crystals exist throughout the galaxy, but these were the first Irken made as far as I'm concerned."

"Wicked."

"Quite," He responded, continuing on to a dimly lit bed with black comforters, blood red sheets and a light blue Irken stamp on each of the materials. Gaz glanced up at the roof to see that it produced an image of space, stars, Zim's home planet, seemingly anything that comforted him. These shots were reflected on the silky black covers that frosted over Zim's bed. Under a misplaced pillow laid a dark red computer with the black Irken insignia on its cover. The bed itself was massive, like massive massive. It took up a whole wall. The most interesting thing about it was that around it hung thousands of pictures. Mainly of Zim, plenty of he and gir, a few of him on his home planet with other Irkens, a few of Dib in certain cells from his previous plans and a lot of just scenery.

Gaz felt that she was actually getting to see a bit of Zim's softer side within his room. "I find your room to be ironic. I'd expect you to have a whole army of guns and weapons in your room. But instead you chose memories?"

"Not exactly," He shrugged, saying something in his native language. A bar dropped from the ceiling, containing multiple guns, plans and anything that could cause destruction. "I can be a very paranoid person."

"You don't say?" She replied sarcastically, "Can those screens above your bed play other things like Tv and more importantly games?"

"Yes, but I prefer them not too, I keep important things on those screens."

"Well you must want to play a game once a while, either way I know two pizzas that are dying to be eaten right now and I am so not waiting up for you to get your act together." Zim gave her a sassy look as she continued on to the greasy boxes and popped the peperoni box open.

"Keep your inferior self over there for a moment. Zim wishes to get into more comfortable attire." Gaz rolled her eyes but kept her focus on the food until Zim said she could look again.

He didn't look much different. His pants were just baggier and his shirt had long sleeves and no gloves shockingly enough. "Want food?"

"I suppose I can try to indulge myself in this stress eating act." He muttered, opening the cheese box and glancing at it uneasily. "I don't trust human food."

"But you can trust me right? It's safe, I promise, your race eats junk food all the time. That's what this is." Zim glanced at her for a moment before debating if he truly trusted the human or not. He however hesitantly reached out and plucked a piece out of the box, blaming it on hunger, not trust. It's been a while since he had actually ingested something to keep his body going.

Cautiously, he sneaked a bite of the pizza and waited for searing pain. None came and though it wasn't the most delightful thing in the world, he did like the slightly spicy after taste the sauce put off. "Like it?" Gaz asked him. He shot her a look and huffed.

"It's acceptable for the occasion." He retorted, trying to keep some pride left in him.

"Whatever. Now onto the good part."

"Good part?"

"The talking." Zim stared at her for a moment before taking another large bite of pizza to distract her from the subject. Invaders did not merely speak of how they felt or what their reactions to a particular situation were.

"Don't even try to get out of it. You are gonna spill your guts in one way or another boy." Zim gulped, feeling his guard raise again.

At this point a slightly good feeling came over him.

He had an internal guard. It was up because of Gaz and her persistence.

She made him feel normal again.

* * *

_**A/N: Sorry for the OOCness. I enjoyed this chapter though. I do have a smart phone, and am not trying to critisize either side of the phone world ;). What do you guys think? Please review and let me know!**_

_**Last review responses:**_

_**AndyH: XD thank you darlin'! Enjoy the hearts and burning pumpkins I am sending your way for Halloween! XD. I need to respond to the PM. Sorry I am such a lazy procrastinator! I'll get back to you soon, I promise! Hope you're having a fantabulous day!**_

_**Tigersfury: HAHAHA mannnn I don't know ya. But I love ya! X3 You're awesome! I'll stay in rage mode with you for a while, but we can plot the Tallest's demise together yea? LOl. **_

_**sensei009: HAHAHA Oh my goodness gracious! I'm sorry for making you cry! Many hugs! Here's the next chapter for you! And thanks a bunch for the review! I love it! Your words made my day! It made me laugh like a maniac in public! hahaha! **_

_**QUOTE OF THE DAY: My gay bestie and I made this up Ahem "Single...and not so sure how to mingle" LOL. love ya princy~**_

_**NOT DEAD I SWEAR. Deathwish1234 X3 IRONY.**_


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